Raking and Stick with Routine

We started teaching Olivia early to help with chores.  She already helps unload the dishwasher, put laundry in the dryer, and clean up her toys.  Today we taught Olivia to help rake the grass.  Well we tried anyways.  She definitely was watching what I was doing and was trying.  Maybe next year she will be ready.

It rained off and on today but we did get outside and played and after her nap she was a hot mess so she went in the swing for a bit.  Every time she saw Brendon she would get all upset...not sure what was going on about that.

Olivia ate a pretty good dinner- mostly all her veggies and a few pieces of meat.  Then of course she had room for some ice cream! We played after dinner and then put clothes away which she loves to play with the clothes in the closet.  She even says clothes when I open the closet.

We made the mistake of letting her stay up a little bit later to watch the first quarter of the Georgia football game...then we had an hour of trying to get her to sleep.  Lots of crying and not wanting to go to bed.  We should know by now to just stick to the routine and put her to bed on time.  It is not worth the headache of trying to get her down just so we could have some extra fun with her.  Now we know...again...stick with the routine!!

Raking!

You mean I have to help the with the whole yard??!!??

I got this mommy!

Hi ho, hi ho, off to rake I go!

Dinner!

smooches

Milk watching the game

The tornado left by someone that stayed up later than usual to watch her Dawgs play!!

Fun!

Olivia had a busy day today.  Daddy took her grocery shopping this morning.  After shopping she came home and napped.  Then I came home...we ate lunch together and the zoom we were off.  Olivia and I went to see Tammy at Lasting Moments by Tammy for some 18 month pictures.  It is very hard to get a toddler to smile! But I am sure she got some great pictures.  I can't wait to see them.  Too bad Olivia stunk up Tammy's house with not one but two poops while we were there!! Gee thanks Olivia...talk about embarrassing to me!!

After pictures we zoomed over to Target to get some baby stuff that was on sale! Then we came home and unloaded all the stuff from the car and since it was sooooo hot we played in the sand and water table.  I was almost tempted to blow up the little pool and let her splash but that is hard with her trying to get that all together.  Our pool is still open but it is way to chilly for me to go in...it has to be 84+ degrees for me to get in!  We ate dinner, folded laundry, and played outside a bit.  We visited the neighbors and today she said Shawn.  She loved playing with Kristy and their dog Max.  She was calling for Max and clapping her hands like she does for Jake.

Tonight in her bath she actually played with something different.  There is a scoop from a sand pail in there.  I showed her how to scoop the water.  Then she grabbed a cup and I would scoop the water in there and she would dump it out.  I think she liked the noise of it.  She giggled and giggled at it.  It was nice of her to play with something different in the tub!

Just one picture for today since she had some other ones done today!

Loves to sit at the computer...she can now pull the top drawer open and peek inside!! Not sure where I am going to put all the danger stuff that was in the lower drawers now!

Fun Thursday and Giggles

Olivia and I had a fun Thursday! She did great at Suzy's (That is what Olivia calls Susan) house today.  She is playing really well with another little boy and talking lots. 

Olivia really makes me giggle sometimes.  Today I asked her what her name is and she said, "Olivia." I am so happy that she knows that.  Then I asked her how old she was and she said, "Six!" Not sure where that came from but I am trying to teach her one. But she cracks me up! I try to ask her lots of questions and I am sure she gets tired of it... and sometimes fibs! "Did you poop? No!" That is one of my favorites. 

We had fun at Kindermusik tonight and she said the teacher's name- Dana! Tonight we talked about food.  Of course we did a whole music theme to toast...Olivia has eaten a lot of that lately.  Olivia didn't want to do the scarf toast though...she just wanted to play with the scarf.  She also knew eggs and listened to part of a story about cookies.  Nikki was there and was rocking the Pebbles hair do.

These are some pictures from Jam Time at Kindermusik where the children get to explore different instruments.

All Better

Olivia and I are all better! I feel much better today but still feel a bit dehydrated.  I have drank a TON of water today but still feel thirsty.  Olivia and I went to Gymboree and had fun.  We saw our friend Griffin.  It is always nice to see our friends in class.  We came home and had breakfast for dinner! I made homemade waffles with blueberries and strawberries that we froze this year.  They were so yummy.  Olivia ate one whole strip of waffle.  I always remind myself that her stomach is as big as the size of her hand.  So I am sure that filled her up.  I felt better today and had some real food which was good to eat.  We did a quick walk outside and then tried on some Halloween costumes! We have some nice friends whose children have outgrown costumes so they are letting us borrow them.  We tried on 3 tonight and we have a winner.  I am sure you will be able to tell by the pictures which one won!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days...

Chilling in my chair

I like to sit in my chair and drink water

As Olivia would say, "Itchy"

Reading the newspaper this morning

Costume #1

Costume #2...so cute!

Costume #3

Hate being sick

Well I guess I got my wish of time to relax...too bad it has to come when you get sick.  i actually stayed home from work which I rarely ever do and I hate doing because I hate writing sub plans!!  My poor stomach feels like I had done ab exercises for weeks.  I finally got some food and drinks down this afternoon.  Spending the day in bed is no fun.  Brendon was a superstar dad and took Olivia to Gymboree this morning.  Silly daddy put a dress on her...which just doesn't work out at Gymboree.  So we had a spare onesie in the bag and when she came home she had the onesie on with the diaper cover from the dress on over it...I giggled.  It looked silly.  I could hear them playing downstairs and laughing and talking while I drifted in and out of sleep upstairs.  At one point I woke up and Brendon was teaching Olivia how to say, "Muzzle loader."  I thought I was going insane at that point.  Brendon and Olivia would come and check on me every once in awhile which was nice.  I felt like my quarantine area was safe as long as they stayed in the buffer zone.  I did eat some soup for dinner and now starting to feel better.  Hopefully Brendon doesn't catch it next!!

Mommy is sick now

Well it was inevitable I got Olivia's stomach bug.... that's it for tonight...Poor Brendon had to come home and take of Olivia. Not fun and definitely not how I expected to spend this long weekend!

Yuck and No Fun!!

Labor Day... a day early

It is part of our life that we never celebrate holidays on the real holiday day.  Just something that you have to get used to with Brendon's job. So we were pretty tired this morning and Olivia didn't sleep any later than usual.  Plus we were watching her like a hawk today constantly asking/offering her sips of water/drinks ALL day.  It kind of got annoying but we knew we had to do it.  She did eat some toast this morning and drank ALL of her milk.  She kept it down and ate a bit of a cracker for a snack with some water.  We were having our neighbors over today and had to clean up before they came over since I didn't get to it yesterday.  So there was a lot to do.  I took her outside with me while I cleaned up the porch.  I even gave her a sponge and she helped wipe the table.  She drank some water and ate a little more snack outside.  I then tried some lunch...more toast and some bananas.  Olivia ate about 1/2 a piece of toast and a few pieces of banana.  She asked for more milk so I gave her some.  No signs of being sick after eating lunch either but I could tell she was really tired.  She ended up going down for a nap at 12:30.  Then I needed to get into gear and clean up for our guests. 

I struggle sometimes especially after yesterday's unexpected ER trip, to try to get everything on my ever long list of to dos done. I had lots to do like cooking, vacuuming, cleaning up the kitchen, get myself some lunch, cleaning the bathroom, shower, return milk to Publix (I really think it was bad- whether they thought so or not), cleaning the car seat again...still stinky and the truck still stinks. I ate a slice of cold pizza while taking Olivia up for her nap...literally eating it as I walk up the stairs with her  While I am trying to do all of this...Brendon sits down at the computer to do his Fantasy Football draft and sits at the kitchen table and eats himself a nice hot lunch.  I got mad...I never, hardly ever just get to sit down and do nothing, or enjoy a meal without having to inhale it in 5 minutes or less. I always have something to do...school work, housework, fixing or doing something.  I really needed his help.  Granted he did vacuum the pool and he helped get the car seat out of the car and taken apart...I really needed his help. While I was trying to feed Olivia lunch I asked him 3+ times to wash the car seat cover.  But he was just sitting at the computer doing Fantasy Football stuff.  I admit I think Fantasy Football is stupid and a waste of time.  I tried it a few years ago but got nothing out of it except losing $10.  From now until February husbands and men become consumed with football and also it is hunting season. So basically I won't have a husband until February...and I am not the only football widow (as they are called) out there.  But there is more to life than football.  I do like watching football but when you spend Saturdays watching college football and then Sunday all day watching more football and then disappearing into the woods... it gets frustrating and lonely.  Ok enough complaining... but Brendon said I need anger management, while all  I was doing was expressing my feelings of being frustrated of trying to do everything myself especially when we were having guests.

But anyways we had a nice dinner and visit with our neighbors.  They are more like family to us than friends.  I also love how they love to play with Olivia.  I think Olivia wore Kristy out by the time they left.  It was good food and lots of laughs with them.  The rest of the day turned out just fine.  Hopefully Olivia will be feeling even more better tomorrow...she drank about a 1/2 cup of milk before bed and didn't want any Cheerios. 

Chilling at the table with Kristy and Shawn

Beach ball fun in the yard

The beach ball looks huge compared to Olivia!

Girls Day ends with a trip to the ER

Well glad I set the expectations low for yesterday because it was a doozie of a day! It started out good.  Olivia ate breakfast and drank milk.  Then we got dressed and she had her snack.  We finished getting ready and were all set to go by new shoes.  We got about half way there and were stopped at a traffic light and then I heard it and saw it.... she threw up in the car.  Ugh so gross.  It was curdled milk...yuck!  So I pulled over and of course I had nothing to wipe it up with except tissues.  I ran into Auto Zone and the worker nicely gave me some paper towels.  I got her seat cleaned up and her mostly cleaned up and headed back home.  Oh yeah... I needed to stop for gas...First thing I did was take her temperature when I got back home... and no temp.  Got her cleaned up and put some new clothes on.  I changed my clothes and then since she was acting fine to go back to buy some shoes.

We went and bought shoes and stopped at Carters.  She grabbed her snack cup out of the diaper bag and munched on some snacks and drank some water.  When we got home I tried some lunch and she wasn't really interested.  I chalked it up to teething and that she ate a lot of her snacks.  We watched the first have the the UGA game...Go Dawgs... nice win over UB! She took a long nap... about 3 hours.  She didn't want much to eat for dinner....she ate some pudding and had some milk.  We did a little playing outside and she was still acting normal.  I took her temperature a million times yesterday.  She had some gross poops in that afternoon/evening to add to all the fun!

Brendon came home from dove hunting and then chaos just erupted.  I think Olivia got all confused since she didn't see him all day and got all upset.  So I told Brendon he was making things worse and just let me finish out normal routine.  I got her milk and she wasn't really interested but I got her to drink some.  Then I smelled the milk and it kinda smelled off and I had Brendon smell it and he thought it smelled ok. I just bought the milk Wednesday and it was dated for Sept 11th.  Well about 30 seconds after she drank the milk she threw up again! Aghhhh...yuck!  Got her cleaned up again and called the nurse line.  The nurse walked me through everything and all the warning signs of dehydration and recommended we try Pedialyte in one hour.  Off to the store went Brendon and of course she wouldn't drink it from the cup.  I tried a syringe of it and about 30 seconds she threw up again...more curdled milk.  Off to the ER we went. 

Got to CHOA Egleston about 10:15ish and got checked in and back to the room.  Olivia was alert and responsive the whole time.  She was talking and only cried a little when they did her blood pressure and tried to give her a 1/2 of Zofran (not sure I spelled that right).  While we waited for the doctor they really wanted to get her to start getting some form of hydration.  We tried a popsicle...no.  We tried water from a sippy cup...no.  We tried Gatorade out of a juice box with straw...no.  We tried water out of a cup...got a few sips.  I had a bottle of water with me...got some sips out of there.  We kept her entertained with books and they brought us some crayons.  Finally the doctor came in and checked her out.  The doctor said it could be a stomach bug.  I told her about the milk and she said it could be that but not sure.  Her recommendation was to hydrate as much as possible and start the BRAT diet.  She said to offer her a sip of something....and they said anything...every 5 minutes.  Then they sent us home.  It was a pretty quick trip for a Saturday night and we got home about 12:30ish.  Olivia went right down. 

But what a dramatic day!

Kicking off the first football Saturday with my UGA bib.

My second UGA onesie for the day!

YAY! Go Dawgs!

Ok this game is a blow out... playing with my blocks instead.