Check up

Tess had her 2 month check up today. She is up to 10 lbs 1 oz and 23 inches. A little on the small side for her weight, if you can believe that after checking out her yummy fat rolls. But in the 75th percentile for height. Maybe she'll be tall like Daddy instead of a runt like Mom. She looks great, according to Dr H and will go back to visit her again in 2 months. I guess they must have made a note in her chart because there was no mention of shots from the nurse. Dr H accepts that we choose to not vaccinate, but the nurse usually acts surprised. We had a different nurse today, not the grumpy one, so maybe that's why.
Tess is finally getting over her cold. She has occasional sniffles but she can breathe through her nose now, at least. Of course, she still thinks Mom is the pacifier. We need to remedy that or Daddy's going to have some difficult nights while I'm at work. Any suggestions? And no, she still won't take the pacifier.

Forgot to mention, Teagan also had a check up. The little man is up to 30 pounds. No wonder his pants fall off his skinny butt. He was a little shy and wasn't really into showing off his teeth or exhibiting his jumping abilities. But, he still passed. :o)

Farm fun

Aunt Krista and I took the little trolls to a farm festival on Saturday. The big boys were spending the night with Grandma . I think it must have been a haunted farm. You'll notice the "aura" in most of the pics. That, or the auto setting on my camera can't tell when it's bright and sunny out and made the flash go off. (Note to self, turn the camera to manual when outside.)
A yummy and nutritious lunch. A donut for Teagan, and some cookies for Tatum. What do you want when all they serve are hot dogs and hamburgers, and I have two picky eaters?


Tess was not feeling too friendly in the sling.


The Monster Mountain slide was a hit. I'm sure they could have gone up and down that for another hour.

Unfortunately, the sign faces the sun. Hence all the squinty eyes.


They both enjoyed the zip line, despite the long line, and the unbelievable 80 degree October day.

Teagan got a kick out of the "haunted" house. I guess it really was haunted. There's an invisible person carrying a diaper bag behind Tatum. Oh no, wait, that's Aunt Krista. She got suckered into going in with them the first time because it was too dark and spooky. I didn't warn her about the slide. Hehehe

Tess and I enjoying computer time. She was making funny faces at me so I couldn't concentrate.

Two months

Tess is a 2 month old today. I'm still having a hard time catching her smiles on camera. She'll smile until she sees the camera. Then, she looks at me like "what is that"? She still has a cold and is snorting and coughing. It makes it hard for her to sleep because she is so stuffy. She slept good for me the last couple nights propped up on a pillow. Unfortunately, I didn't notice last night, until I came back from the bathroom that I had propped her right in the middle of my pillow, on my side of the bed, and she was ASLEEP! I somehow managed to scootch down sideways on the foot of the bed to get some sleep before she woke up again. I didn't dare try to move her. She is awake and alert more often these days, and is occasionally, content to just sit and look around. More often than not though, she would prefer to be held. I've discovered, she is a little too big for the bathroom sink, or at least, too squirmy. I tried putting her in the tub today with just a little bit of water, but she tried to roll over in there. Guess I shouldn't have gotten rid of that baby bathtub.
Tatum and Teagan still like to hold her, briefly. Then of course, it's "Mom, can you take her?"
I went back to work on Monday night, when Tess turned 8 weeks. I had originally planned to take 10-12 weeks and should have stuck with that. With this quarter of school starting the same day I went back to work, and a baby with a cold, it was just too much. I should not have planned to go back to work and start this term all in the same week. Luckily, work wasn't sure of my return date and we were overstaffed. I was on call Tuesday night, and only worked 3 hours Wednesday night. I don't go back until the end of next week.

I really needed this little break. I am going to school online, which is daunting in itself. But when I took a look at my assignments this week, I was feeling a wee bit overwhelmed. Okay, not just a wee bit. Like if someone asked me how I was doing, I might have just not said fine. I was on the verge of tears constantly, and thankfully, no one asked how I was doing. Well, they did at work, but I gave the standard I'm fine and moved on before I had time to think differently. I was really starting to believe I had made a huge mistake either with school or work or having another baby. It was all getting to be too much.

Parent teacher conferences were yesterday. Tatum is doing really well, except she talks too much. Well, duh. And she needs to work on recognizing her ABC's. Could you work on that with her? And Travis does really well in Math, and he's improving in writing, but he needs to read more at home. Could you help him with that? I hate how they look at you like you're a bad parent because your kid can't....., or doesn't..... Or maybe that's just my perception. I really just wanted to say, HEY! I have 5 kids! And I'm working and going to school, and trying not to have a nervous breakdown!!! So, no!! I can't .......

I'm adjusting though. Things will get better. Tess will get over her cold and not feel the need to be held constantly. My iron pills will kick in and I won't feel so run down. I will get a couple assignments under my belt to feel like I have accomplished something. Tanner will stop getting detention for not finishing his work. I will go out with my girlfriends and get completely sauced. Oh, woops, that wasn't supposed to be in there.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We had a birthday party for my Mom on Sunday night. My sis and bro took her out to dinner at Old Hickory, but knowing that I have a bunch of picky eaters, we skipped that part, and just had them come over after for cake. Pics to follow. My first night back at work was a bad one. Not for me, I didn't have any patients. But for Tess. Doesn't she look like she's thinking, "how could you leave me alone?" She has never slept without me next to her, so I knew that would be a transition. But, on top of that, she still has this yucky cold with horrible congestion. And she likes to comfort nurse and won't take a pacifier. So, she didn't sleep much, which made Daddy cranky. She slept with me most of the day today.

I am on call tonight, so she should be okay. I'm just hoping this cold will be better by tomorrow night when I have to go back to work. It's been about 3 or 4 days now.
The pics below are all from our birthday "party".

Let me preface this by saying, my 11 yr old has a typical boy's sense of humor. In case you can't tell, that's a guy lighting a fart to light the candles. I thought the baker holding his nose was a nice touch.
And of course, he has to include his Guitar Hero addiction.

It took 3 people to light all 60, yes, 60 candles.
Check out the flames on that cake!
Good thing there is no smoke detector in the dining room. She still has enough hot air in her to blow them all out in one shot.
And here is the cake after the "I want a corner", "I want a flower", "I want the middle", "I want an edge". Good grief. The pickiness extended to the adults in this instance.

8 weeks and Halloween Swap

First off, here is your Tess fix. She is 8 weeks old today. Secondly, I participated in a Halloween swap sponsored by Heidi at Foxgloves, Fabric, and Folly. Well, yesterday, a huge box arrived in the mail from my swap partner
Beth. It was stuffed full of all kinds of goodies! Thanks again, Beth! It was fun to find some goodies in the mail, instead of more credit card offers. LOL
A cat pumpkin making kit, notecards, pumpkin spice bread mix, mulling spices for cider, orange tealights, a kitty tealight holder.
A sparkly pumpkin, a knit scarf (that will probably be used as a rope if I don't keep it away from the kids), scarecrow tealight holder, wooden red apple, straw apple, two fall kitchen towels, a fall rug for the kitchen and some mini pumpkins and gourds that I added to my apothecary jar. If I get a chance, I will get pics of where these items ended up.
I've seen some "homemade" decorations as I've perused other blogs. Here is my attempt at candy corn, mason jar candle holders. I think I may need to trim the wicks. Amazingly, little fingers have not been sneaking the candy corn.

And yes, my baby girl is an 8 week old. Hard to believe it, but it's true. Right now, she is lying on my lap, stinking. Man, this girl has stinky farts. What in the world has she been eating? Or rather, what have I been eating?


It still takes some work to get her to smile for me. What's up with that? She smiles for Daddy all the time. What does he do that's so special? What am I, just the milk bank? Little booger. Speaking of boogers, my poor baby has a cold. A nasty one. Like sneezing gobs of snot, and snorting while she nurses. Not to mention, the crunchy eye boogers. Yep, motherhood isn't all cute and cuddly.
Tomorrow is a big day for me. Not only do I go back to work after 8 weeks off, but the fall quarter starts tomorrow. I'm just hoping I haven't bit off more than I can chew with this whole work, raise a bunch of kids, go to graduate school thing. We'll see. I'm kind of excited to go back to work since I miss my "girls", but it's been nice getting paid for not working too. I wish I could figure out how to work that situation out permanently. LOL

I'll be jumping in to Physical Assessment and Communications this term. I think I'll be alright with the assessment, but I sure don't like Communications, or speech, or debate, or any version thereof. I know that might seem strange to some, since I seem like I talk alot, but I don't like talking in front of people I don't know. You know?

Anyway, off to have some cake for my Mama's birthday! She's the big 6-0 this year!