Having kids and moving sure does change things, and not just my figure! I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my family for several years now. I'm not exactly sure for how long, but I'm thinking it has to be around 10 years or so, with an occasional one missed when Tony's entire extended family rented a house somewhere for the extended weekend. I used to go ALL out, using our wedding china, festive tablecloth and cloth napkins, extravagant menu options. The whole shebang.
This year, I'm really dialing it back. Our china is still in boxes and I have absolutely no idea where the cloth napkins are or several of the serving dishes. Instead of spending $300 on groceries for Thanksgiving, I spent $101. Whoa. We've always had way too many leftovers, and this year, I'm hoping that I got just enough for everyone to have generous portions. Of course, Thanksgiving leftovers are the best, but I'd much rather save the $200!
The kids keep me too busy (and tired) to even want to attempt going through the boxes in the garage to find everything. We are also trying to save money, but keep being derailed in that process. For example, I took my car in for a tire change and new battery last weekend, but left with four brand new tires, had to have an alignment done, and a new battery instead. We also have a trip to Disneyland coming up the end of January. And we are supposed to be putting money away for a down payment on a new house that we hope to buy early next summer. Oh, not to mention Ayden and Rylee's birthday (I need to get invitations made!!) and Christmas coming up. Gah!
I'd like to say we are just having a small Thanksgiving dinner this year, but we're going to have around 15 of us total, at least 6 of those will be kiddos, maybe 8 depending on if my brother brings his two littles. That doesn't make for a very small gathering anymore!
However, I still love it. My favorite thing is spending time with family. I actually do take pride in hosting dinner too, even though I won't be going all out for it this year. There'll be more time for that in the future. This year will be all about spending time with family and eating good food. Who cares if we are using store bought napkins and mismatched tableware?
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Monday, November 21, 2016
Microblog Monday: I'm Here
I've been finding it hard to sit down and write a blog post lately. Actually, I've been struggling to catch up on reading blogs lately as well! I don't know why, other than when I actually get down time, I've been super lazy. But, here I am!
I've been staying busy watching the twin girls in the afternoons. Last week I even had a fifth kiddo over for a little while! Five toddlers all around the age of three. I am happy to say we all survived and they played pretty good together!
We are still attending our Community Playgroup twice a week in the mornings. On the other days, I try to get Ayden and Rylee out of the house for at least a little while every morning. We've had an adventure to the local Lake.
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| They are standing in what is actually a swimming spot during the summer, but the lake gets drained and is dry every Winter. |
I took them grocery shopping last Friday. I've always made them sit in the cart, but I was only after a few items for dinner and decided to let them walk the store. They were very good and entertained all the other customers. Rylee had to tell every person she saw about her pretty dress and the bow in her hair. Ayden told them about his cowboy vest.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with Tony's family on Saturday. Ayden and Rylee had a blast playing with their cousins.
Today we went to the park for the fist time in a few months. It was a nice day, but everything was still very wet! These rain suits are the best ever! I'm so glad I thought to throw them in the car when we left, just in case.
So there's a little snippet of what we've been up to. I always have the best intentions of sitting down to write, but I usually end up busy doing something else during nap time (like cleaning. Ugh.) or sit down and pass out myself temporarily. Someday I'll get to all these blog posts I have stored up in my head...
If you'd like to learn more about #MicroblogMondays or read more posts from others, click here.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
World Prematurity Day
November 17th, World Prematurity Day. It's another one of those random holidays that doesn't mean a whole lot. Until it does...
I've always been aware that some babies are born way too early. I always knew that could be a little scary for the families involved. I just never truly understood. I don't think anyone can really understand what it's like to have a baby come earlier than expected, to have a baby in the NICU, until it happens to you (or someone close to you).
Today symbolizes a day of hope, fear, love, loss, and miracles for so many people. We waited 14+ years for our two little miracles. There was a point in time that we thought we'd never get to be parents. We knew what it was like to get our hopes up, only to experience loss through miscarriage. Our story has a happy ending, but there are many who don't get that same happy ending. Did you know that 1 in 10 babies are born too soon? Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death in children under 5 years old. Today is a day to bring awareness to prematurity and to honor all the babies born too soon.
Preterm is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks gestation. Rylee and Ayden were born at 33w2d, almost 7 weeks early. They were amazing weights for being so early. Rylee weighed 4 lbs, 10 oz and was 16.5 inches long. Ayden weighed 5 lbs, 4 oz and was 18.75 inches long. They spent 19 days in the NICU learning how to keep their body temperatures up, and how to suck, swallow, breath so that they could eat on their own. As hard as those first few weeks were, I feel incredibly lucky and blessed. Our NICU stay was relatively short and uneventful compared to others.
I'm so proud of how far my babies have come. They are no longer our tiny little preemie babies. Now they are funny, adventurous, opinionated, busy little almost three year olds! As much as they sometimes make me want to pull my hair out, I can't help but feel extremely blessed.
I've always been aware that some babies are born way too early. I always knew that could be a little scary for the families involved. I just never truly understood. I don't think anyone can really understand what it's like to have a baby come earlier than expected, to have a baby in the NICU, until it happens to you (or someone close to you).
Today symbolizes a day of hope, fear, love, loss, and miracles for so many people. We waited 14+ years for our two little miracles. There was a point in time that we thought we'd never get to be parents. We knew what it was like to get our hopes up, only to experience loss through miscarriage. Our story has a happy ending, but there are many who don't get that same happy ending. Did you know that 1 in 10 babies are born too soon? Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death in children under 5 years old. Today is a day to bring awareness to prematurity and to honor all the babies born too soon.
Preterm is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks gestation. Rylee and Ayden were born at 33w2d, almost 7 weeks early. They were amazing weights for being so early. Rylee weighed 4 lbs, 10 oz and was 16.5 inches long. Ayden weighed 5 lbs, 4 oz and was 18.75 inches long. They spent 19 days in the NICU learning how to keep their body temperatures up, and how to suck, swallow, breath so that they could eat on their own. As hard as those first few weeks were, I feel incredibly lucky and blessed. Our NICU stay was relatively short and uneventful compared to others.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
When a Teachable Moment Backfires
Ayden and Rylee wrestle around together a lot. It's been a nightly ritual for quite some time now, that immediately following giving each other hugs and kisses, that they tackle each other to the ground. Then they proceed to take turns on who gets to be on top pinning the other down. Lately, they have taken to rolling around on the floor and pinching each other's cheeks at various times throughout the day. Hair pulling has also started, which Rylee is not a big fan of (probably because he doesn't have enough hair for her to return the favor). Most of the time though, they are both laughing and having a great time during these shenanigans.
Last week I had to intervene because Rylee was pinching Ayden and he was not liking it. He asked her several times to stop, but I ended up having to step in. I tried explaining to Rylee that it wasn't nice to pinch and she was hurting Ayden. When she pinched him again, I moved her away from him. I then pinched her arm and again tried to explain that it hurts.
Her response? She laughed hysterically and asked me to do it again! Sooooo, I pinched her arm again a little harder, trying to prove my point but feeling bad. I know it should have hurt at least a little, but the silly girl thought it was hysterical! There was no way I was going to pinch her again. What I thought should have been a lesson learned, instead turned into a funny game.
Rylee 1, Mommy 0.
Rylee won that round.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Eye Appointment
Rylee had her eye appointment up at OHSU yesterday. Tony took the day off work so he could go with us, since we planned to stop and trick-or-treat at a few family and friend's houses on the way home. It's a 2 hour drive from us and her appointment was at 10AM. Our plan was to leave our house by 7:20, allowing time for traffic, getting the kids in their costumes once we arrived, and a visit to the bathroom before we had to check in.
We didn't end up leaving our house until 7:30, which still gave us a little breathing room to get there, and thank goodness! Not far into our trip, we got stuck in traffic due to an accident. Then, with about 40 minutes left in our drive, Ayden announced that he had to go potty, so we stopped for a toddler potty break on the side of the road. Since we were already stopped, we figured we might as well make sure Rylee went too. Can I just say how super proud I am of the fact that he actually told us when he had to go? That was the first time that had happened. Not that he's had any accidents in the car yet, but that was the furthest car ride we've taken since he started potty training.
Once we finally arrived at OHSU and got parked, we quickly had the kids go potty in the potty seat we keep in the back of the car and got them into their costumes. We walked into the building at 9:58, and I made a quick dash into the bathroom. There was no way I could make it through her appointment without going potty myself! We got checked in right at 10:00. Phew!
The floor we were on was completely devoted to pediatrics, so there was lots to keep Ayden entertained in the lobby with Daddy, while I went with Rylee. Halloween was the perfect day for us to have this appointment! Everything was decorated and all the staff was dressed up in costumes and they encouraged all the patients to come dressed up as well. Rylee was super excited to see Snow White, who administered all the eye tests!
I was really impressed with how smooth the process was. In addition to Snow White, there was also a Panda Bear (a resident - it's a teaching hospital). They did such a good job making Rylee feel relaxed and excited while looking at pictures for the vision tests, and wearing patches on her eyes. It was almost like a game. They were quick and thorough, but also backed off and took their time when needed, like when Rylee didn't recognize a certain picture on the screen. When we had to wait in the room for the doctor to come back, they put on Mickey Mouse for her to watch.
In addition to being impressed with the staff, I was also very proud of Rylee for knowing her shapes! And let's be honest, I took an internal sigh of relief that we'd been working on shapes so that she could even answer those questions! Go Mommy! lol. She also did great when they put "raindrops" in her eyes. Rylee spent the rest of the day with dilated eyes and it didn't seem to bother her at all. She was such a trooper! Both kids did great actually. The appointment was just shy of two hours, so it was also impressive that Ayden did so well hanging out in the lobby.
The reason we had this appointment was because her primary pediatrician thought she saw Rylee's left eye not quite tracking correctly at her last well check in July and gave us a referral. Turns out that Rylee's eyes are just fine! She has great vision and no eye muscle issues at all. Yayyy! So happy for that report. While the appointment turned out not to be necessary, it's at least nice to now know for sure that Rylee's eyes are perfectly healthy. The doctor yesterday said it's very common for them to get referrals from pediatricians that turn out to be nothing, that there's something about kid's eyes (I can't remember exactly what she said) that can give an appearance of them not tracking together. Primary physicians tend to over-refer, simply because they don't want to miss something if there does turn out to be a need.
On our way home from the appointment, the kids took a short nap on our way to trick-or-treating at my mom's house. We visited there for a little bit and then made two other trick-or-treating stops on our way home, visiting a friend and then their other grandparents. We made it back home for dinner and had a little bit of time to play before bedtime.
It was a very long day, but overall a good day. I'm so glad that Tony took the day off work to go with us. I know that it definitely wouldn't have gone as smooth trying to wrangle both kids through that appointment by myself. It was also nice that we could split the driving time so I didn't have to drive the whole way by myself!
We didn't end up leaving our house until 7:30, which still gave us a little breathing room to get there, and thank goodness! Not far into our trip, we got stuck in traffic due to an accident. Then, with about 40 minutes left in our drive, Ayden announced that he had to go potty, so we stopped for a toddler potty break on the side of the road. Since we were already stopped, we figured we might as well make sure Rylee went too. Can I just say how super proud I am of the fact that he actually told us when he had to go? That was the first time that had happened. Not that he's had any accidents in the car yet, but that was the furthest car ride we've taken since he started potty training.
Once we finally arrived at OHSU and got parked, we quickly had the kids go potty in the potty seat we keep in the back of the car and got them into their costumes. We walked into the building at 9:58, and I made a quick dash into the bathroom. There was no way I could make it through her appointment without going potty myself! We got checked in right at 10:00. Phew!
The floor we were on was completely devoted to pediatrics, so there was lots to keep Ayden entertained in the lobby with Daddy, while I went with Rylee. Halloween was the perfect day for us to have this appointment! Everything was decorated and all the staff was dressed up in costumes and they encouraged all the patients to come dressed up as well. Rylee was super excited to see Snow White, who administered all the eye tests!
I was really impressed with how smooth the process was. In addition to Snow White, there was also a Panda Bear (a resident - it's a teaching hospital). They did such a good job making Rylee feel relaxed and excited while looking at pictures for the vision tests, and wearing patches on her eyes. It was almost like a game. They were quick and thorough, but also backed off and took their time when needed, like when Rylee didn't recognize a certain picture on the screen. When we had to wait in the room for the doctor to come back, they put on Mickey Mouse for her to watch.
In addition to being impressed with the staff, I was also very proud of Rylee for knowing her shapes! And let's be honest, I took an internal sigh of relief that we'd been working on shapes so that she could even answer those questions! Go Mommy! lol. She also did great when they put "raindrops" in her eyes. Rylee spent the rest of the day with dilated eyes and it didn't seem to bother her at all. She was such a trooper! Both kids did great actually. The appointment was just shy of two hours, so it was also impressive that Ayden did so well hanging out in the lobby.
The reason we had this appointment was because her primary pediatrician thought she saw Rylee's left eye not quite tracking correctly at her last well check in July and gave us a referral. Turns out that Rylee's eyes are just fine! She has great vision and no eye muscle issues at all. Yayyy! So happy for that report. While the appointment turned out not to be necessary, it's at least nice to now know for sure that Rylee's eyes are perfectly healthy. The doctor yesterday said it's very common for them to get referrals from pediatricians that turn out to be nothing, that there's something about kid's eyes (I can't remember exactly what she said) that can give an appearance of them not tracking together. Primary physicians tend to over-refer, simply because they don't want to miss something if there does turn out to be a need.
On our way home from the appointment, the kids took a short nap on our way to trick-or-treating at my mom's house. We visited there for a little bit and then made two other trick-or-treating stops on our way home, visiting a friend and then their other grandparents. We made it back home for dinner and had a little bit of time to play before bedtime.
It was a very long day, but overall a good day. I'm so glad that Tony took the day off work to go with us. I know that it definitely wouldn't have gone as smooth trying to wrangle both kids through that appointment by myself. It was also nice that we could split the driving time so I didn't have to drive the whole way by myself!
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| I adore this picture so much! |
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