Five Minute Friday

I feel like I don't have much to say today, so we'll see where this post takes me.  I do have exciting news, my sister in law had her baby boy yesterday.  Elijah Douglas.  He is the second boy for Matt and Tiff, joining his older brother Owen. 

I found a new blog to follow.  If you like sarcastic humor you will love People I want to Punch in the Throat.  Val, you would get a kick out of it.   I  think like this blogger, but am too afraid of hurting people's feelings to actually put it out there.  I guess I'll just stick to updates and photos.

We have our first Chirstmas this Saturday.  I am looking forward to the girls getting new toys.  Never thought I would say I want more!

Ellie is completely walking now.  Rarely will she choose crawling as her means of transportation.    Just last night she was trying to run after Whitney.  When they learn a new skill they just take off with it!

Wade noticed I have a crooked spine.  I suppose I should get that looked at.  It probably doesn't help that I have held a baby on my left hip for years.  I know you should alternate hips but it's really impossible and not practical to do anything with my left hand.

Dec 3 and Dec 10

December 3rd we had a wedding to go to.  Wade's friend Nolan got married.  It was a beautiful wedding and the day went really well.  We did get our first winter storm that evening.  It rained all day and then turned to snow.  It was slow driving home until we got closer to Ames and it turned to rain again.  We stayed until 10, not getting home until 11.  Thankfully I packed pj's in case we did end up staying that late, and the girls fell asleep on the way home and straight to bed.  We all slept in that next morning!

this is Dave (cheeseball)   Doesn't he look like a proud papa!?!

 Nolan, the groom

Whitney had a blast dancing!  The wedding was a lot of fun for her. 

Wade had to leave for San Francisco Dec 4 for five days

December 10

Saturday we FINALLY got ornaments up on the tree and then went out to The Perfect Gift.  



Ellie was excited to see the tree when she woke up from a nap

Who needs to wait for a first birthday for some sprinkles and frosting!?!?!

It was really cute, this year they had a tea party section

Ellie just loved on the bear while Whitney had tea

Whitney's version of decorating the tree

My Ornaments

We finally had some time as a family to decorate the tree.  I was getting other things organized and Wade was snapping pictures of Whitney.  Little did Wade know was that Whitney found some special ornaments of mine, they are from my late Grandma Lucy.  She would buy us engraved ornaments.  I have three of them.  One from the year I was born and two other random years.

Ellison- 9 month appt

19.2 lbs

28.25 in

I would offically call her a walker now.  She walks 50% of the time.  She tries to walk before crawling, getting steadier every day.  She can go across a room and even around corners.  She can crawl up stairs and has added "moo" to her vocabulary.  The doctor was very impressed with her, saying she was operating as a 12 month old.  Yes, it's all that smart milk I make(made)   :)  j/k, take a joke!  No, it's my super teaching skills, (j/k, take a joke people!)  Whitney was a smarty pants too, hitting milestones early.

this is why I have a hard time unloading/loading the dishwasher.  little miss is all up in my business!

she would have kept going, but you can see her feet slipped on the linoleum

She is just the happiest girl!  Literally everywhere we go people always ask if she always so happy.  YES, she is!!  She is a very content girl.  I love her :)

Five Minute Friday

It's friday, it's friday!  We survived the week and Wade comes home today!   The week actually went quite well (minus the ER trip monday night).  Ellie has been sleeping all night!!!  She naps a lot less during the day, but I'll put up with that if it means 9-12hrs in her crib at night!!!  It makes a world of a difference in my mood and energy and how I react to outbursts and tantrums.   Whitney is so like me it's scary.  I have to remember love and logic when I deal with her.  Anyway, not where I really wanted to go with today's post.  Just wanted to share a few pictures from our week. 

Talking to Daddy on the phone.  I told Ellie to say hi to daddy and she started waving at the phone.  It was hilarious!

time to throw out the thanksgiving leftovers.  have you ever seen red mold??

what a portion of our house looked like yesterday morning.  Whitney took lots of pictures but I'll spare you of the play by play of our house!

 I was invited to a cookie exchange by our landlord/neighbor.  I didn't want to go.  I don't like to bake, especially when I have two girls underfoot or using up precious nap time when I could be doing other things, like watching One Life to Live while browsing the internet!  I felt obligated to go and my mom played on conscience too.  I am a baking failure.  I had a box of brownie mix so I thought I would add marshmallows.  I have never baked with marshmallows before.  They melted into the brownie and left pockets of air.  Those stayed home last night.

I rant to Target yesterday afternoon because I destroyed the brownies and over baked (burnt) most of the pumpkin spice cookies I had made earlier.  I got a roll of peanut butter dough and these mini Hershey kisses.  Target does not have those chocolate stars.  Have you ever seen them done this way?  No, it looks ridiculous!



I was getting stressed out that I spent all this time baking ( ie using prepackaged goods) neglecting the girls  and the house, failing to get dinner on the table and our appearances were in shambles with 45 minutes to spare.  On the way over I let Whitney carry the container of frosted cookies.  They ended up a globbed mess.  We stayed about 45mins.  I chased Ellie around and Whitney chased me chasing Ellie.  My neighbors daughter talked to me making me fell welcome while the older neighbors talked about school issues.  Bath time was calling.....

First ER Trip

I have said Ellie will be our ER baby.  Last night was our first trip to the ER.  Not my first trip, I have been for my second miscarriage.  Not because I was in pain or bleeding incessantly but because it was a saturday and I couldn't wait until Monday to see if the pregnancy was still progressing.  Second trip to the ER for me was when I was in my first trimester with Whitney and had bleeding.  Again it was a saturday and I was on my way to the crazy train so I couldn't wait until Monday.

Last night we were playing in the living room until bath time.  It was 7:45.  Ellie was walking to the couch and stumbled up on some blankets on the floor and went down hard on her arm.  It twisted funny under her and she CRIED!  I instantly had that feeling that something was wrong.  She wouldn't let me touch her arm and was being careful not to put pressure on it.  I thought her shoulder was dislocated.  I tried calling First Nurse and their lines were tied up.  I decided I better pack up the girls and head to the ER.  I hate wondering what you should do and what warrants an ER trip.  A dislocated shoulder needed a trip in my book.  Now it's 8 o clock.  The ER didn't seem overly busy but apparently they were.  It was an hour and half before we were seen.  In the mean time Ellie is using her arm more and more and people were asking me which one was sick and that the baby seemed fine.  Thanks, but I'm here and it would probably be child abuse if I just decided to go home and come back tomorrow during reasonable hours. 

Thank goodness the girls were doing great and I still had some toys and snacks in the diaper bag from the wedding we were at on Saturday.  And I had milk for each of the girls.  I almost went empty handed because I just wanted to get there.  Okay, 9:30 and we see the doctor.  She immediately does not seem concerned and moves Ellies arm around testing it out and feeling it.  She does not see the need for an xray and said from what I described it was probably nursemaids elbow.  This is a common injury in older infants and toddlers where a bone in their forearm dislocates at the elbow commonly happening from being pulled on too roughly.  Did I mention I was rough housing with the girls and swinging them around holding their hands and tossing them onto the couch.  This is the first I had done that with Ellie just because of babies seeming so weak and it feels like you can rip their arms out of their sockets.  Apparently you can.  I was doing this with them shortly before Ellie fell.  I don't think I gave her the injury, but maybe I loosened up the joint and when she fell on it it popped it out?  The doctor said the injury usually fixes itself, either they do it on their own or when I put her coat on or in the car seat you can move it just right to pop it back in.  I don't know if she really had nursemaids elbow or just a really painful fall, but I do know that she cried alot and wasn't acting right with her arm. 

I'm glad it was nothing, but you sure feel like an overreacting mother when you take your kid to the ER and that you wasted healthcares time and money.  But I am so thankful that the Army treats you right when it comes to healthcare, because I don't have to think twice about getting care for my family and what it will cost us.  NOTHING!!  Well, monetary wise.  It does cost us time away due to deployments.

Did I mention that Wade is in California this week?  Yeah, I had to pack up the girls and handle it alone.  I had a moment in the waiting room where I just wanted to cry because I was feeling overwhelmed and about sick thinking they would have to relocate Ellies arm but then I remembered it is what it is, I'm in the ER waiting room and I have to take care of my girls.  No sense getting all sappy about it.  Sad but hopefully not true, that may not be the only time I have to take the girls to the ER by myself.  Better get used to this independent parent thing.

Today she is fine.  She is clapping, crawling, pulling up and using her arm just fine.  Was it necessary to go to the ER?  I don't know but I don't regret taking her.

Five Minute Friday

I don't even know what to write about today, so I guess I will kind of ramble.... we got our Christmas tree monday afternoon.  It is in our house undecorated yet.  Wade has been busy with his thesis staying at school until 10/11 at night so we have yet to find some time to do it together.  Hopefully I don't kill the thing, I keep forgetting to water it before I go to bed!

We have our first Christmas party tonight at a professors of Wade's.  We went last year as well.  I remember last year when we came out of the party it was snowing like mad.  I'm glad winter hasn't started quite so early this year.  I like a pretty snowfall, but there will be plenty of that come January.  We will leave the girls with the sitter.  Tomorrow we have a wedding in Iowa Falls.  The second to last of the Alden boys is getting married.  All that is left is "Cheeseball", getting married in the spring!

Ellie is really walking now!  She can stand alone well and she is can go farther and farther.  She tries to walk wherever she goes instead of crawling.  Won't be long and she will be walking full time.  Thank goodness my girls are early walkers, I love it when they can finally walk.  I haven't decided if walking/talking/crawling/sitting is nature or nurture.  With Whitney I encouraged her to do everything and really worked with her, even working with her to get her to roll over.  With Ellie she definitely learned to crawl on her own, she was only 5 1/2 months!   I for sure push the girls and don't wait for them to learn on their own.  So who knows when they would have picked things up on their own.  I guess from my point of view and the way I do things I'm going to go with a lot of nuture and a little nature.  Each kid will learn how to do everything, just a matter of time and guidance!  Curious what other mom's do.  Do you push your kid to learn or let them do it on their own?