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Springy Friday

Today has hopes of a high of 66 degrees and it's already 55 out! There is a chance of rain again but it seems like it's going to be a nice day. Our lilacs are blooming and make everything smell wonderful, even our house now that we have a big vase of them inside. Yesterday was nothing out of the ordinary for us. The poo strike is over, in case you were anxiously awaiting the details. It was happily resolved at school yesterday. Today should be a pretty regular day, with a chiropractor appointment after work for both of us! Daphne is starting to have a new favorite game now. She absolutely loves Peek-a-boo and will laugh and laugh when you play with her. Everything else is going well with her too. Her teeth are coming in a lot now (just the same two), she is sleeping pretty well, we haven't given her reflux medicine to her at all in a week and she is a happy and content baby. I hope you all get to enjoy the weekend and have some great weather. We plan on planting our flower boxes and about a zillion other things on my list of dream things to do. Happy Friday!

Wet Thursday

Yay, we are almost to the end of the short week! I made it through my busy day yesterday so hopefully the rest of the week is smooth sailing. Peanut had a good day yesterday at school....only she didn't poop at all. Yes, that may sound like an odd thing to mention to those of you who don't consider poop an everyday topic of discussion, it's usually a hot topic around here and at school. So we are now going on 36 hours without a poo....which makes a pretty grumpy Peanut. She was wiggling around all night because of it. She has done this before but it's never fun. We have chiropractor on Friday so I'm hoping that will help her. Along with the ferociously wiggly Peanut last night we accidentally locked Zoe (our cat) in the guest room so in my sleep induced haze I heard constant meowing all night, until around 4am when I realized the meowing hadn't moved or changed so she must be trapped somewhere. I woke Mike up and he found her and set her free...which just led to her meowing outside our door for food starting at 4am instead of the usual 5:15...so needless to say it was an eventful night. As I sit here and type she is constantly meowing because she is done eating and wants let out of her little room.....oh how I love cats. Have a great Thursday everyone, hopefully ours will be covered in baby poop.

Drizzly Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone....yes it is still raining here. I'm pretty sure we have another day or two left of the gray wetness. Yesterday was a pretty good day back to our routine. Peanut had a good day at school. One of her teachers who was pregnant went into labor yesterday so they had a replacement there but other then that it was an average day. Today will be a busy day at work for me, I have two really long training meetings that take up most of the day so that will hopefully make the day go fast. I found out at work the Olivia (Greta's daughter) now has one tooth too! And another one on its way through. So now Daphne will have a Toof buddy! Tonight we are going to try to come up with a creative way to hang a baby bouncer from our gigantic old fashioned door trim, we need to rig something up so we can hang it because she LOVES that thing! If you have any genius ideas let me know. Have a good middle of the week.

Rainy Tuesday

Good Morning everyone...whew, we feel like we ran a marathon with all the traveling and visiting we did this long holiday weekend. We had a great time visiting family and friends. The trip to Marquette and back went pretty well, Peanut slept about an hour or a bit more both ways....still not a fan of the "mini prison" (carseat). She didn't have any major breakdowns or anything, just doesn't like being squished in it for long periods of time, which I can definitely relate to. She had a great time visiting Grandma's and Grandpa's...and Great Grandma's and Grandpa's...and Great Aunt's and 2nd-ish cousins.... We are hoping today goes well at school seeing as it's been a major routine change for the past couple of days. Hopefully we can all make a smooth adjustment back to the normal routine, despite the 5am wakeups and no food in the house. Happy short week everyone!

Some pictures for the weekend...

Purple Thursday

Good Morning...today's post will be short, we are trying to get to work early so we can leave early...Mike and Peanut are already up and ready to go. Yesterday was a good day, really nice out! Today is suppose to be the same so that's exciting. We are almost all the way packed and ready to go. We will see most of you soon! Have a great day.

Pink Wednesday

Yay, we have finally reached Wednesday! Only 1/2 day left for Peanut and I. Yesterday was a pretty average day, it was really nice out, in the 70's I think...and today is suppose to be even nicer so that's a treat. Now if we only had time on these nice days to do something fun. Peanut was a bit wiggly last night with belly bubbles so hopefully we are both rested up enough to make it through the day. I have a chiropractor after work today, woohoo, mom treat! Tonight will be spent packing for our trip....lots of packing! Todays color is pink.....she was much more interested in her little owl friend then getting her picture taken though. Have a great middle of the week!

Blue Tuesday

Good Morning everyone.... As you can see today's color is blue and she is decked out in all the blue we could find in the picture above. I've had success with our weekly theme so far seeing it has been 2 whole days! Peanut's day at school yesterday went well. She took 2 really good naps, one in the morning for 1 hour 50 minutes and one in the afternoon for 1 hour 30 minutes! Amazing, not sure how that worked but hopefully we can repeat it. Today we have a lot of packing to start to make sure we can make it home in Marquette on schedule. Other then that it's just a plain old Tuesday. I do have a surprise for everyone though...if I zoom in on the picture above look who made an appearance!! I'm not going to give it away, you have to look carefully... (hint: watch your fingers)

Yellow Monday

Good Morning everyone.....my attempted theme of this week is color of the day....so today is Yellow Monday. We'll see if I can make it the whole week and have a corresponding picture. This week is a short week for us because we are headed to Marquette Thursday after work! We had a great weekend. On Friday I got the go from work for part time! I couldn't be more excited. I will be working 4 - 8 hour days (mostly Mon-Thurs) starting in August. In the meantime I will be wrapping up some stuff for work and trying the 4- 9's and one half day vacation. Our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Soetaert went really good this weekend. Peanut did excellent when we went out Saturday evening and again Sunday morning. It's amazing how glorious Walmart and the grocery store can be when you don't get out much. Peanut is doing better now that both of her teeth are in. She got a new toy on Friday, an excersaucer I found from someone on craigslist. It's a really nice one and she LOVES it. She had a blast in there this weekend playing with all the new toys. We also got her a present on our "parent only" adventure out, a little piano. She likes to slam on the keys and hear it make noise, it's pretty cute to watch. This week will be spent preparing for our long adventure home. From the looks of the list to pack you would think we plan on living for a month in Europe....but no, we will just be traveling 5 hours for a wedding instead. Have a great Monday, hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Refresh

Thank goodness it's Friday! This has been a pretty good week overall. I have some more exciting news for everyone......Toof #2 (still nameless due to it's fresh arrival) has arrived!!! That's right, she now has two little teeth poking up from the tiny little baby gums. You'd think with two we'd be guaranteed a picture....well out of about 100 we took yesterday this was the best we could get. Not sure if you can tell but there are two little white blurry spots right up front bottom. She's hanging in there pretty well and had a good night. The picture above is the one from Wednesday at school when she had a twin (both their shirts say "Squeeze Me"). This weekend we have Grandma and Grandpa Soetaert coming to visit (tomorrow) so I'm sure there will be plenty of fun involved. There is also the chance we will get some other stuff done...like packing for our trip to Mqt next weekend, going to the gym, cleaning the house, making granola....and *GASP* going out to dinner with our friends while Peanut has Grandma/Grandpa bonding time..... Have a great weekend everyone!

Twins

Today's picture is Daphne and our friend Lei....this was one of his very first baby holding experiences....
Thursday....the countdown to Friday has now begun! The weather here has been about 50 degrees and extremely foggy so nothing to report from that end. The teeth are still charging through, she is being a trooper about it. The hardest part for her is nighttime. She has trouble falling asleep for the night and staying asleep, which is not like her at all. Hopefully once she gets these two through she'll be able to sleep a bit better (for the sanity of everyone involved). She had a good day at school yesterday, according to her report card she took a 2 1/2 hour nap!!!! I didn't pick her up yesterday so I will have to ask them about it today, if it's true that is amazing, that would be the longest nap she has taken since her itty bitty days. When I picked her up at lunch there was a funny surprise....she had a twin in the same onsie yesterday. She wore the orange "Squeeze Me" onsie that was in a picture on here awhile back. A little boy there named Aiden wore the same one.....it was pretty funny. They even put them on the floor next to each other and took pictures and then put them on construction paper for us to take home. Mine is at work right now but I'll try and remember to post it on her so you guys can see. Other then that nothing to exciting to report. Have a happy Thursday!

Happy Wednesday

*No you can't see Chompy in this picture but she was sure trying to work with us to get a picture of that little guy, maybe next time...

It's never too late to have a happy childhood. ~Berke Breathed

Morning salutations. We have finally reached the middle of the week and are yet again on our way to Friday. Yesterday Peanut had a good day at school, nothing too exciting to report from that end...Oh wait, she's almost out of diaper cream...yep, that about sums it up. Yesterday at work went well too, still not sure about the schedule...there is now a meeting Friday with my boss, her boss and her boss's boss....and HR, to see if they can come to some decision on what my schedule to be. I'm probably causing a ruckus but oh well, that ball is already rolling so might as well see where it goes. My manager told me next week we could start the 4 - 9 hour days and one 4 - hour day unofficially so I don't have to wait anymore so looks like we might be doing that for now. Last night we switched up the bedtime routine to see if we could evade the 1-2 hour time it takes to get Peanut to sleep but she is much wiser then us and was on to us. We did her bath right when we got home and then brought her down for dinner and hanging out time. She was still tired around 6:00-6:30 and didn't fall asleep until 7:45 so not much success there. We'll keep moving forward until we can find the magical nonexistent and perfect bedtime routine. Have a wonderful Wednesday....

Toof #2

Tuesday has arrived...and yes we are starting to see signs of Toof #2 (it will remain nameless until it breaks through her little gums). Chompy is still avoiding pictures at all costs, I think he is afraid to make an appearance on film. Someday I'll have to catch him when he least expects it. Not much to report from yesterday. Peanut had a good day at school and an alright night. Nothing exciting at work, still waiting to hear back about my schedule....which is all I seem to be doing any more, hopefully we'll have an answer soon. The picture above showcases Peanut's new wardrobe addition......the bib. She does look pretty cute if I say so myself! Have a great day everyone...

5 months

Good Morning everyone. Today Daphne is officially 5 months old. It's amazing how fast time flies! We had a good weekend, one of our friends from long ago visited so we got to catch up with him Saturday. The weather was rainy and rather cool all weekend so not much to do outside. Peanut's day at school on Friday went well, she drooled so much they had to change her clothes so now we have resorted to wearing a bib at home all the time too. She also went on a walk in the wagon Friday with her other little friends. When I got there at lunch she was in her little sweatshirt and sunhat just getting out of the wagon, it was adorable! I got a present from her for Mother's Day that she made at school, it was a little potted flower with her hand prints and fingerprints on it, it's so cute! They made a card with a really cute picture of her face in the middle of a flower too. Mother's Day was fun, I made dairy free coffee cake for breakfast....it was incredibly good! I got some great presents from Mike and Daphne (flowers, books and a little play tray to attach to her Bumbo seat). For those of you looking for a Chompy update....I wasn't able to get a picture yet...he's a tiny little guy tucked behind some wiggle lips and tongue, I'll keep trying. I'm not sure if was Chompy, her cold or her belly but something has been bugging her these past 3 nights. She has been flailing all around and very restless and nursing won't put her right back to sleep like it usually does. Needless to say it's 5:30am and I'm ready for bed! Hopefully she feels better this week. Have a great start to your week...

"Chompy the Toof"

Happy Friday everyone...we have almost made it another week. I can't believe Daphne will be 5 months on Monday and I have been back to work full time for one month. Yesterday Peanut had a good day at school and we had beautiful weather. Since we, for once, had nothing to do after work we took a walk. Half the time she was in the stroller and have the time she was in her sling. She's still not sure that the stroller isn't a torture device so we are going to have to start regular family walks to convince her. Today's picture is her in her little hat getting ready for our walk. Work went alright as well, my meeting with HR went pretty good. I left the meeting thinking I would most likely be able to start 4 - 10 hour days next week because that would be the easiest route to go. However, within 15 minutes of that I was told that might not be the easiest route to go due to everyone else wanting the same so part time might be the easiest route and someone else would have to meet with someone else before they could decide.....so needless to say I still don't know. It appears I'll be working 4 days a week somehow but when we get to the start point I am not sure. And on to the most exciting news EVER.....you are probably wondering if today's title is some crazy kids book or another wacky song I use to listen too....the answer is no, it is the name of Peanut's FIRST TOOTH that broke through yesterday (she named it with the help of Dad). Yes, that is right, she has a tooth that you can feel and see poking out of her gums. It's on the bottom, her right side. She is getting SOOO big, I can not believe she has a tooth already. That makes me feel a bit better about her runny nose and cough, now that the tooth is through maybe she will get better. Hope you all have a great weekend, we are planing on visiting with an old friend and enjoying the weather.

The Potter's Kitchen

Yeah finally it's Thursday....we are getting so close to Friday I can taste it. Yesterday was an alright day at school for Peanut, she didn't nap that well for them and they said she coughed a lot. She also only ate 2 of the 3 bottles, granted we did pick her up a little early for her appointment. She was in good spirits otherwise. We decided to get the shots, not going to think about whether it was a good or bad decision because it's over with.... she only cried for literally 1 second. Once the little red Monkey played it's music she was over it and happy again. She went to bed fairly well last night....except for the crib attempt. On the final daybed nurse to sleep attempt it worked a little too well seeing as next thing I know Mike is waking me up at 10:00 to move into our room...oh well, at least we tried. I'm hoping today she has a better day at school with more naps and less coughing. She did cough a bit in the middle of the night but not a ton and she slept well. We didn't even have to give her a second dose of Tylenol that we sometimes do after her shots. Send some Get Well thoughts her way today, we need to get that cough out of here and get back to feeling all the way better. Today is my meeting with HR for my flexible work proposal...wish me luck! Hope you all have a great Thursday!

Late Night Radio

Wednesday....we made it through two of our three busy days so far this week. Our chiropractor appointments went good, they LOVE her there. The receptionist got to hold her while I got adjusted (for fear of car seat explosion) and she was showing her off to everyone at the front desk and Daphne was hamming it up. Although a different lady there did ask me how old HE was....and I said SHE is ~5 months and wearing pants with millions of flowers all over them, so yes they are blue but they are exploding in flowers....ok I didn't really say that last part but thought it. Everything else went well, the Chiropractor said we are both looking good and Zeus got his shot at the vet around the same time. Today is the dreaded shot day for Peanut......we have an appointment at 3:45. One shot in the leg and one orally, I am not looking forward to it. I hope it doesn't make her feel too funky, poor little bean. She does still have her cough but her stuffiness is going away so that's a good sign. Other than that today will be the usual....work, daycare for lunch, work, *shots*, home, bed. I should mention we are still trying the crib for the first little bit at night....and last night was another 45 minute sleep alone in the crib night! That's really good, her second long one so far and we have been trying for a week. Someday we'll work to get past 45 minutes but for now that seems to be a good step. Happy Hump Day!

Four Wet Pigs

Happy Tuesday everyone...yesterday went pretty well for all of us. The usual Monday routine now, Peanut had a good day at school and was happy when she came home. She went to sleep really well, although the crib attempt was short last night. She only woke up to eat 3 times or so....although it's possible it was more and I slept through them (the beauty of sleeping next to her when you have to get up at 5am). Today will hopefully be much the same. We are having some nice weather finally but I know the rain is on its way. Today Peanut and I have a chiropractor appointment together after work and Zeus has the vet so it's a busy day for us...good thing I have dinner all ready in the crock pot on the counter...let's just hope I remember to turn it on! Hope you all have a great day! The picture above is Daphne and Olivia (& Mike and John of course)....and the title another favorite song by Greg Brown.

I See the Moon

Good Morning everyone, hope you had a great weekend. Now we are back to the start of the week again, bleah, something about Monday's just always makes me not that excited...We had a really good weekend full of lots of fun events. Friday we had a barbecue with John, Greta and Olivia. Olivia and Daphne are getting big enough now to start noticing each other and interacting a bit so it's pretty fun. Daphne even got to try out the doorway jumper that Olivia had....she LOVED it, she spun all around and danced. We brought it home to try but it won't fit over our trim so that was a bummer. We are thinking about buying a jumper at the store but since they cost about as much as a car and are only used for a few months we are thinking hard....she did love it though. Then Grandpa and Uncle Jake visited on Saturday and we hung out at home all day and cooked out. Sunday we went to visit one of my friends from Michigan Tech who had a baby March 30th. They live in Appleton so we loaded up and drove there. Peanut did good in the car, slept mostly so that was nice. It was nice to see them and her baby, Kayla, was really cute (amazing how far they come from 1 month to 4 months!!!). Peanut is still sick which really stinks. She has a cough that I don't like and is still a but stuffed up, we will probably have to schedule a doctor visit if she isn't doing better by tomorrow. She had a couple rough nights over the weekend with a bellyache that would sneak attack her in the middle of the night and make her very sad but last night she seemed to be alright. Her days were great, she was happy and smiley and excited for visitors. We have been starting the night routine in her room still and it is going well. She has slept in there each night for anywhere from 10 - 45 minutes, even with me moving her from daybed to crib so that is progress. We will keep trying so we can all get more use to it. Today's title is from a song I remember when I was little by Greg Brown. Hope you all have a great (or as best possible) Monday.

Hop on Pop

Happy Friday everyone....we finally made it! Yesterday was a pretty good day. A couple of exciting things happened actually.... After talking with my manager we developed a loose plan for my schedule, although we still have to take it to HR so it's only about 10% guaranteed right now. I will do 4 days a week, 9 hours a day, which will leave me with 4 hours left to do on Friday. I will then take those as vacation. I will do this for 2-3 months while I finish up a project at work then I will switch to 80% instead of full time, meaning I would work 4 - 8 hour days. That doesn't sound too bad, it means using some vacation but it would be worth it. I'm trying not to get too excited though because the part time thing is really up in the air so I'm not sure how that's going to go. We will meet with HR next week and feel them out. I probably wont start until the week after next or later because we have to get their approval. The next exciting thing that happened is Peanut fell asleep in her crib!!!!!! I was so proud of her. I nursed her in her room on the daybed and she wasn't falling asleep so I put her in her crib, swaddled up (arms out of course) with her pacifier (she will occasionally take it now) and turned on her mobile. It took about 20 minutes of wiggling around, spiting out the pacifier, kicking the mobile, doing a 360 turn in the crib and reswaddling but she fell asleep and was happy the whole time she was in there. She slept in there from 8:00-8:45, that might not see like a big deal but TRUST ME, for her it is a huge accomplishment. When she woke up I brought her into our room and went to bed. We are making progress and it's only day 2! Today should be a pretty good day, I have chiropractor after work then we are eating dinner with John and Greta, hoping Peanut can keep her self together for that long today. We then have visitors this weekend, Grandpa and Uncle Jake! How fun.....have a great weekend and enjoy any sun that peaks through those clouds.