Saturday, June 9, 2012

Late Night Thoughts

Ever have those nights where you can't sleep.  Yeah, this is one for me.  Lots of my mind.  Nothing particularly good or bad, just a lot of things.  I'm sorry if this is kind of a ranty, random post.  But it's late, no pictures, just words :)

One thing is that I love my Parents and I'm grateful for them and I just wanted to say that. I've been learning lots of little lessons quitting my coaching job.  The main one is that kids for the most part behave like their parents.  Those women and are hateful and petty and sad have taught that to their daughters and so I'm a sad for that.  I also know that I will do my best to teach Alex different lessons in hopes that she will grow up to be confident. kind and loving.  That entitlement is a sad way to go through life, and that meanness is usually a mask that hides insecurity and fear.

I feel like I really stood up for myself leaving this job, and although a lot of people are very angry at me, I know I did what was best for me and my family, and I"m not sorry for that.  My mom and dad have always taught to me be a gracious loser (even though that's still a tough one for me) and to be confident in my decision and my mistakes.  To own both and to learn from the ones who don't go my way.  They taught me to fight for what I believe in, but it's ok to fail, and that picking ourselves up is more important.  Asking for help is not a weakness but a sign you have truly matured.  I struggle with that, but I know the lesson, and try to teach that to Alex.  It's clearly evident in her constant asking of "Hap Peese", which we know as "Help Please" :).

As I sit an analyze by decisions and wonder is there something more I can do.  The truth of it is, does it really matter?  I stand by what I did and I have no regrets.  Having no regrets doesn't mean I'm not sad and it doesn't hurt, because it does, a lot.  But I'm finding that my regrets are just issues that I haven't resolved in my head yet.  I don't regret mistakes because I can learn from them and we all make mistakes.  I just hope that 30 years from now when Alex hopefully has her family and kids, she can look back at her decisions with conviction and know that the lessons taught to her by her parents, were first taught to us by her grandparents!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

I'm back....

Whoa!  I know I know.  It's been 4 Months of a hiatus for me.  I'd like to think I have a good reason.  Part of it I think is time got away from me and part of it was I found I was losing things to talk about because I was so darn busy.  When I took my "part time coaching job", who knew that it'd turn out to be a life consuming endeavor.  Ok, so I knew a little bit, since that's how I roll, but I figured I'd be better.  Nope.  Sadly, when I'm in season it's all consuming.  I can't help myself.  I eat, sleep, and breathe dance.  I'm hoping I didn't neglect Alex too much.  I don't think I have much to worry about though.  We had an AWESOME college student that looked after her.  Seriously, I would clone this girl if I could.  Finding someone to watch Alex after her, is like having a gas station burger after eating Prime Rib.
Rocking the Beavis and Butthead shirt

Alas, my life became dance team, and dance team my life and "At Home" life consisted of me going through a million things most people aren't interested in involving dance.  Then our season ended the end of March and I was excited to have more time on my hands.  Of course, we go and do something crazy and decide literally on a whim to sell the house and buy a new one because rates are so good (which lets face it, they totally are!).  Then life became cleaning and staging the house, trying to keep Alex from destroying it to much, and a fun but exhausting list of searching, touring and house hunting.

Well, as most of you know, we sold our house (in 2 days, with 2 offers), and found our new house in Onalaska, which I'm itching to get it.  Now, when I think I have a breather, we need to move out of our house in 2 weeks, move in with the in-laws, and a new journey begins until we can move into the new house.  It should be interesting.  Don't get me wrong I am thrilled and thankful that they are letting us live with them, but of course there are concerns.  The main one being, how are 2 retired grandparents going to handle the mini-tornado that is their 16 month old granddaughter.  One that is supremely independent, very vocal, stubborn to a fault, all wrapped up in a giggling, goofy, and recently very cranky little package.  They live a quiet life and although close, we usually only see them once a week.  Now we will be together 24-7 for a little over a month. 


In Alex news, she is ever changing, growing, and astonishing us every day.  She has 4 molars, and each one was a painful few days of not sleeping, cranky kiddo and an emotional mommy.  I have now been at home with Alex 24-7 for 5 weeks, and honestly most days I love.  The ones I don't enjoy so much are when she's in a bad mood or she's really cranky and then there is nothing I can do to change that.  I've also learned that days we can't get outside and run around are kind of painful.  This kid needs to run, and explore, and be on the move, which is another reason I am really happy to get our of our small, vertical cape cod, into a much bigger space.  She is a talker, like her momma, and has an opinion on everything.  You can't always understand what she's saying, but she lets your know if her own way.  Too much to talk about in the one post, but hopefully I can keep up with posts as our life goes though a new and exciting transition. 

Monday, December 26, 2011

Alexis Ellin, how are you 1 already?

I have about a billion different emotions about Alex turning one.  The most prominent one being Sadness.  I'm sad because she's no longer a baby.  She walking, talking, signing, and becoming her own little person.  I miss the baby smell, the falling asleep in your arms, and the overall cuddliness.  It makes me sad that she'll never that baby again, but I'm also blessed with such an amazing little girl.

She's very serious sometimes ;)

I guess from the start Alex made her mark and was going to do things her own way.  Coming 6 days early was an awesome surprise, and the short 6 hour labor was even better.  She would have come out sooner, but I spent 2 hours trying to push her out my hip :) as soon as I turned on my side, 3 pushes later and this screaming, wailing, adorable thing with a full head of dark hair joined our family.  She spend the first hour of her life screaming.  Not just crying, but full on, what are you guys doing to me screaming.  I remember calling our parents and she had a great set of lungs!


I think I've learned a few huge lessons this year as a first time mom.  First, it's ok to ask for help.  I'm so used to being good at what I do, to struggle at anything is beyond frustrating.  I've learned that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of character admitting you don't have all the answers.  Second, there is no "right" way to do things when it comes to kids, and I wish I had a manual.  There will be challenges and most of the time winging it has to work, and what works one time, may not work the next. Third and most important is that you will never love anything or anybody like you do your child.  There is a fierce protectiveness in me that I didn't know was there, and you would do anything for that child.  You don't want her to ever be sad, sick or hurt, and seeing those things in your child breaks your heart.


Alex's personality has blossomed and now she is only what I can describe and a small version of her father and me.  She is independent, a lover of food, impatient, adventurous, and LOVES to dance, all like her mama.  She is also goofy, happy, an observer, a thinker and can have a temper, pretty much like her papa.  She is the best of us (smart and thoughtful) and also has the qualities that may not be the most attractive (extremely stubborn & impatient) but she is inevitable her parents.  I think my favorite part of her, is that she's overall a happy, funny child.  She loves men (oh boy) and will wave to anyone in the store.  She blows kisses, moo's on cue, and signs "more" pretty much constantly :).


Now that she's walking and talking, I find myself missing that little bundle that used to cuddle and coo, but I am enjoying this phase of life even if it is challenging.  I feel like every stage she enters, Mark and I are running after her to catch up.  If the next year is anything like this one, there will be challenges, tears, love and happiness and I would not change it for the world.  I am blessed with the most precious gift ever and I am so proud to be her mommy.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Tis the season to be.....sick

After my dismal showing of blogs in November, I told myself to be more vigilant in December.  Well, whoops, not going great so far.  We're over 1/3  of the way through December and here's post number 1, but I swear I have a good excuse, and her name is Alex :)

How do you not want to smooch that face?

I will fully admit that last week was one of the scariest things to go through as a first time mom.  Alex, struggling to breath, seeing her striated breathing kind of freaked me out.  She was having a hard time and it breaks your heart to see your kid in any pain, but there's a strange kind of internal panic that happens when you can see they aren't breathing easily.  I mean there are a lot of things you can fix, but breathing?  We took her in to the ER, hooked her up to a monitor, and instead of us waiting in a side room, they took us right back to one of the emergency rooms, which told me it was a good thing we brought her in.  Her pulse ox was low and when they listened to her lungs she wasn't moving much air (which at that point I was like duh, and DO SOMETHING).


It's funny how everyone says, "Well it's a good thing your husband is a doctor."  I do agree, but there's nothing he can do at home for her.  We had to take her to the ER where she got very good care (from a doctor that my husband liked and knew, and whom he trusted, which makes it easier).  She got a shot of steroids, in which I fully admit, I stepped out of the room and let Mark and a nurse hold her down :(.  Then two nebulizer treatments, a chest x-ray, and lots of waiting.  It was a long night, but obviously I felt much better after taking her in.  The weird thing about being a doctor's wife, is I tend to feel self conscious because I don't want to be that lady who takes her kid into the ER for a cold, and have everyone give Mark a hard time at work.  I know it's silly, but that's me.
My happy happy baby

In any case, bringing home the nebulizer, the steroids, and meds for Alex made me feel better and obviously made her feel better too.  After a couple of days she started to look and sound better, but I'm still a bit paranoid.  I know kids that get Croup can be more susceptible once they get it, but at least I know what to look for.  She's now on antibiotics for the chest, nose, gunk that just won't go away.  She is not loving all the meds, so hopefully soon we'll be done with all of it.  Then we just have to deal with her teething, which I've fully discussed in other posts, the fact that it is the bane of my existence!!  I'm hoping to get her clear of this before her 1st birthday, Christmas and all of the holiday fun yet to come.  Sick babies are the worst, all you want to do is take the pain away, but I'm sure there will be lots more to come.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Daylight savings

Wow, I have been sucking at blogging lately.  I started blogging to have a good outlet being a Stay at Home Mom, but am I still technically a SAHM if I work part time?  Who knows.  In any case, I feel like I've been so busy and always running around and don't have time to sit and lay down my thoughts.  Wait, that's not true.  I have had time, but that time is usually spent what little time I have with my husband at night, or honestly, me being so tired that I just veg or read.  Which let's face it, makes a really boring blog.  Put the baby to bed, and hey, read for a bit, watched some TV and passed out.  Oh the life I live :)

She loves her Noah's Ark!

One thing is for sure.  Daylight savings week SUUUUUCKED!  I used to love turning back the clock.  More light in the morning, an extra hour of sleep, who wouldn't like that?  This year it became, holy crap, my seriously regimented and scheduled baby is now off her schedule.  Let the games begin.  Obviously babies are not made for daylight savings.  After all, trying to explaining to a 10 month old she should be sleeping an hour later is like speaking Chinese to your dog and expecting a response.  Nope!  And to add icing to this already awesome cake, she was either going through a growth spurt or teething because I had one cranky super dramatic baby for almost the ENTIRE week.  Not a day or two, but 6, 6 loooong days and nights.

Another fun pastime is pulling DVDs off the shelf, fun stuff

It started with Alex, every morning, getting up between 3:30 - 5:00 am and screaming from 45 min to an hour depending on how she was feeling.  Compounded by non-napping or really short mini naps led to an exhausted and stressed out mama and baby.  Going from a wonderfully happy, independent child, to a screaming, needy, non-sleeping baby led to such a long week.  I joked with Mark at one point that I thought our child may have in fact been possessed.  There is no proof to either corroborate or deny that claim :).  Add to that fact that I gave my team the week off to rest before we start our competition season, so there was no outlet for my frustrations or stress.  Honestly, I never realized how much coaching is a great outlet as I get to yell and order teenage girls around and release some pent up aggression.  I do really enjoy my job most days.

My Happy girl is back :)

Needless to say I was looking forward to a new week.  Last week, Alex slept until 6:30, and was my usual happy, independent child.  I hugged her so hard because I had missed that baby.  She ended up drooling on me, giggling, then pushing me away to go stalk the puppy.  I know how lucky am I to have such a good baby that is usually an awesome sleeper.  But I appreciate it even more after daylight savings.  One thing is for certain, it made it clear to me that I am NOT ready for another baby and sleepless nights quite yet.  I am really enjoying sleeping through the night :).

Monday, November 14, 2011

Halloween fun - waaay late :P

Alex was a trooper for her first Halloween.  We decided since she's only 10 months old, that taking her trick or treating would involve me lugging around a very squirmy baby that has no interest in candy...yet.  The kid hasn't had so much as a cookie yet, and I'm ok with that.  We had a few people ask us if they could give her candy.  I politely said no, as she only has 2 teeth fully in and is still a baby, well kind of.


When picking out her costume, of course Mark and I went back and forth.  It was quite funny, but we both knew in the end she's end up being some cute bug or furry animal.  Mark wanted her to be a ninja :).  When she's older that will probably be cute.  I didn't want the fully body costume for her, since she'd most likely try to take it off the entire time, and I also didn't want to spend a lot of money since let's face it, I thought she was only going to wear it for 5 min.  Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Once Upon a Child.  I have no idea why I don't shop there more.  Seriously.  We got her costume for $6.  It was warm enough to be outside, but no so constricting that she could still crawl around and be happy.
Happy little lady bug
 I was actually super surpised but she sat outside with me and a hour and a half handing out candy.  Impressive!  She was fascinated by people's costumes and when she wasn't trying to eat candy wrappers she was waving buh-bye (something she's just starting to do) and helping me hand out candy.  I had so much fun handing out candy with her, and between kids, she crawled on the lawn or played with leaves, oh leaves.

I love this picture so much :)

Next year will be interesting when she's older and walking and talking, I'm not sure how much trick or treating you do with an almost 2 year old.  Probably as much as she can handle :).  At least we can go to a few houses and she can help me pass out more candy.  She's now a seasoned pro!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Fall is here

I LOVE fall,  LOVE LOVE LOVE.  It's my favorite time of year because of the smells, activities, and of course food.  I'm excited experiencing Alex's first fall with her.
 
Going Apple picking and picking out pumpkins is a part of fall that I love.  It's weird to think last year when we did these things I was 7-8 months preggo and now I have a sassy, happy, tornado of a 9 month old.  It's fun experiencing these things with Alex even if she is a little too young to do these activities.  They're mainly for mama and papa with Alex along for the ride, but it's all about making memories :).

What I've learned about my child is that leaves are NOT her friend.  People get on my case and say, let her get dirty, it's good for her, who cares, etc.  I honestly don't have a problem letting Alex get dirty.  Ok, I do a little, but I still let her because I know it's good for to get dirty.  My issue isn't with her playing with leaves and getting dirty, my problem is that every time she eats leaves, she gets pieces stuck in her throat and mouth and ALWAYS throws up.  It never fails.  Hopefully when she's a little older she can play in the leaves and not try to swallow them and projectile vomit everywhere, that would be nice.

Another funny thing about our child is she is her mom when it comes to her internal temperature.  I have no idea why, but I've always run warm.  I rarely get cold hands, I'm usually in a t-shirt when everyone else has a sweater on, I will NOT wear socks until absolutely necessary, and I sleep with the window open in the winter. I'm probably part Eskimo.  Alex seems to be the same way.  We keep out house warmer for her, but when she has multiple layers on she sweats.  At night she only needs light cotton pajamas and cotton sleep sack.  If I try putting her in fleece or something warmer, I get a sweaty baby with flushed cheeks.  It's actually really nice not bundling her up at the slightest breeze.  We'll see how she does in the winter.

Basically I am loving everything about fall.  We're busy and it seems always on the move, but I'm enjoying every new experience with Alex, with the exception of teething.  I REALLY dislike teething and everything that comes with it.  But I digress.  Now it's time to find her Halloween costume, but that's an ongoing debate between her father and I.  We'll see who wins out, I have a feeling I know the outcome :)