Family Visit

My grandparents left this morning, after being back from Florida since Tuesday evening. It was so nice to spend some time with them. I didn't go straight to my parents' house yesterday morning because when I did it last Thursday, I ended up watching the kids by myself while everyone else was doing something else, and it was quite a challenge. I stayed home for a while because it's a lot easier to reign Samuel in at our house. Anyway, he needed a nap badly, so we stopped at the thrift store after he woke up, on the way to my parents' house. After we got there, my grandma commented that they were disappointed that I didn't come over earlier (I got there around 3 PM). I told them that I wanted to come over earlier, but I figured I'd give them some time alone with my mom (their daughter), and Grandma was feeling very poorly from a bladder infection Tuesday evening, so I didn't want to add to her stress. Mom told me this morning that Grandma was feeling bad about our misunderstanding about me going over there yesterday, and it made me so sad I started crying. I wanted to go over there at 7 AM, when Samuel woke up, but I knew they probably wouldn't be up, since Grandma's sick, so I held off. I'm so sad about it because we hardly ever get to see each other, and by the time they come back, I'll be back at work and won't be able to spend very much time with them at all. I hate having to work so much, for so many more reasons than just that.

Brad worked longer hours the past two weeks so that he can have the day off tomorrow. We're going to go to the Great Pumpkin Patch after we have pictures done at the mall. We never did 18 month portraits for Samuel due to a variety of reasons, which I'm sad about now, but I want to get pictures of the kids and maybe all of us before Audrey gets too much older. We had a lot of fun at the pumpkin patch last year, so I hope it'll be enjoyable. It's supposed to be much cooler tomorrow than it was last year - we were downright hot and sweaty when we left last time! I hope Samuel enjoys himself.

On a totally different note, how hard is it to understand Plinko? I have the Price is Right on for Samuel to watch while eating a snack and I sit here and type. A girl just played Plinko and when she was trying to win the chips, she couldn't understand that the actual price either started with the first number of the wrong price or ended with the second number of the wrong price. I've seen people do this two other times. Drew Carey will say, "It either starts with a 1 or ends with a 5. What do you think?" The contestant will say, "It starts with a 5!" He explains it again, and then they'll say, "It ends with a 1!" At some point after he explains it again they'll get the point, but I just don't see what it's so hard. Maybe he doesn't explain the games as well as Bob Barker did.

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

My title's not really true, but I love the Carpenters, so I had to use it. I actually enjoy rain, although the humidity makes it less so. My grandparents arrived early (probably because Grandpa drives so fast) and we got to see them for a few hours on Wednesday night! I missed them so much - we hadn't seen them since early January, when I was only a few weeks pregnant with Audrey! It's so funny that they arrived the day after Audrey's 1 month birthday, because that's almost the exact age at which they met Samuel - he was one month, three days old. Neither of them wanted to hold her on Wednesday night because they both have colds, but I convinced Grandma to hold her yesterday because Audrey is her namesake, plus I just wanted to them to see how sweet and cuddly she is! Samuel loved hanging out with my Grandpa, even though he was slightly unsure of him, since it's been a large portion of his life since he's seen them! We spent a lot of time outside with Grandpa yesterday afternoon and Samuel was imitating everything he did - I wish I would've had my camera, but I was afraid to drag Samuel inside and make him so upset just to grab the camera.

Anyway, Samuel's 18 month and 24 month check-up was yesterday, even though he turned 22 months old yesterday! I missed taking him this summer because work was super busy and I was going to the OB so much that I just forgot for a while. Then it was so close to Audrey's due date that I just didn't feel like going, since we were doing fine. The check-up went fine. He sat perfectly still for Dr. Stone when he examined him - even his ears - and he even sat perfectly still when they pricked his finger to check his hemoglobin (for the 24 month part)! I wanted to cry because he was so brave! He only started to fuss a little bit when he couldn't get his band-aid off. He has always hated them for some reason. I took it off of his finger before he became a total basket case, but his thumb was still bleeding and it took a while to stop. Audrey slept the whole appointment, which I was thankful for. We got there extra early (7:40 AM) so that we could get in right away, but in true Children's form, we didn't even get called back until after 8, which was his actual appt time! I know better for next time.

Poor Samuel also got four shots yesterday and I forgot to give him Motrin before heading to my parents' house, so he was not himself. When he was a younger baby, he would sleep almost the whole day after shots, but he tried to be tough and played and played until he couldn't keep his eyes open. He only got about 40 minutes of good rest and then the waterworks started. He was so pitiful. He was happier once I took him outside to explore, and that's when he started copying Grandpa. We ate supper with the family last night and then they left for my cousin's wedding this morning. They're supposed to be back Monday nightish.

Brad was so upset because we missed The Office last night - I don't feel as badly because we can watch it online, but I'm trying to avoid reading people's comments about it on the Facebook.

I'm planning on heading to the Kid's Market after Audrey eats again. I'm too cheap to go during the regular price days, so we'll see what we find. It irritates me when so many people won't allow their items to be discounted, but that's why I like garage sales better.

I just caught Samuel messing with my chapstick on my bedside table. I am so tired of him doing that - he will crank the whole stick out of the tube and then try to shove the top on it, resulting in a huge mess and a wasted stick of chapstick. He also thinks it tastes good, so he he always licks it and makes whatever might be salvagable gross. It's so frustrating!

Change of weather, still together when it ends

It was nice to see a "5" as the first digit of the temperature outside this morning, although it did mean that Samuel woke up extra early (6 AM) because he was cold. He still refuses to keep covers on him, and I'm still putting him in pajama shorts because he gets sweaty. Anyway, apparently it's been so long since we've put Samuel in pants that he doesn't remember ever wearing them. I put him in pants this morning because of the nippiness in the house, and he was so confused as to what he was wearing. He must have messed with them for about 20 minutes and then he realized that he could unsnap them and basically made himself a khaki skirt. He looks hilarious.

Audrey turned 1 month old yesterday, or technically, last night. We always did homemade portraits of Samuel at each month milestone, but I'm beginning to realize that even though he never slept, he tended to be more smiley than Audrey has been thus far. Of course, we did try to do her pictures last night, and she might've just been tired from the day, but she wasn't too inclined to keep from fussing without her pacifier in, and I really wanted non-pacifier pictures. I am really getting bad about writing run-on sentences! We did get some cute pictures regardless. Samuel also obviously does not remember doing that, because he tried to lie down next to Audrey, as if he thought that's what the point was. It was cute.

My step-grandmother is coming over to see us today. She still hasn't met Audrey because she was out of town when Audrey was born and then was sick when she returned. My mom's parents are coming down from Minnesota, but they probably won't be here until tomorrow afternoon, and then they're leaving again with Mom on Friday morning to go to my cousin's wedding in Florida. I guess we could've attended the wedding in theory, but I don't think it would've actually worked out in reality with a 1 month old and 22 month old in the car for 10 hours. We'd probably have to stop so often that it would end up taking at least 15 hours. Yuck. Anyway, what an exciting week!

What was I thinking?

I learned a hard lesson last night. I put Audrey in nursery for the evening service because our good friends were the people assigned to be in there. I would never put her in nursery at this point otherwise, because she's still so young. Right before church started another person came in and asked about holding Audrey. I said that it was fine, because I figured they'd leave to attend the service. I told everyone in there that if Audrey woke up I need to come feed her, so I asked if they'd text Brad. I was antsy throughout the whole service because I knew it was past time for her to eat (if she was ready) and we hadn't had any contact. I sneaked out when Scott opened it up for questions and when I got down there, the same person was still holding Audrey, who was asleep. I remarked that I couldn't believe she was still asleep, and I was told, "Oh, she was hungry when she was awake, but I got her back to sleep." It was really hard for me not to express how upset I was. Why does my child have to go hungry because she is breastfed? If I would've had a bottle in her bag, she would've been fed, but because I want to feed her myself, she was deprived. She was very hard to console when I took her because she woke up immediately and of course was starving. Then she gulped down all this air because of her hunger and it was just a bad time. I balked on putting Samuel in the nursery when he was an infant because of this, and now I know that I am not putting Audrey back in there for a long time, and I will just have to leave in the middle of the service to feed her if needed, because apparently not everyone can be trusted. It made me so sad for my poor daughter.

Fun Family Weekend

After about 48 hours, I finally remembered what was supposed to be the other part of my earlier post - the speed at which time passes. Everyone always says that time goes by faster the older you get. I agree with that, but since having children, especially Audrey, it seems like even the minutes go by faster! I cannot believe how fast two or three hours go by now! I used to just notice the days and weeks and months going by faster but it's crazy now!

Anyway, we had big plans to go to garage sales early Saturday morning, but somehow the morning got away from us - when I looked at the clock, it was 8:27! I'm thankful Brad let me get some extra sleep in, though, because sleep deprivation is still hard to overcome, even though it's not as much sleep deprivation with Audrey as with Samuel. We did venture out to some garage sales in our area around 10 AM, but the ones we headed for first, that had the most hype and advertisement were a huge let down! We were sort of disillusioned, so we just picked some at random to check out, and we actually had some great finds! I never find anything for myself anymore, but I'd rather find stuff for the kids anyway!

We had a somewhat productive afternoon after we got home, too, which is pretty rare! Brad and I worked outside while Audrey slept in the bouncy seat, and Samuel "helped." Unfortunately, we discovered a yellow jacket nest after about an hour and came back in. I was not willing to put Samuel at risk just to get the backyard cleaner. We had a nice supper and watched some football and enjoyed the evening.

We always have the best of intentions on Sundays, but since last Sunday was just the first time we've actually made it to the morning service since Audrey came, I wasn't sure if Sunday School would be doable yet. It wasn't yesterday. We were awake plenty early, but it just takes so much longer to get ready with two children than it did with one! I know it took us longer when Samuel was first here, so I think we'll be okay once we get into a better routine. I think we had to go back upstairs to get stuff at least six times! We were also the latest to church we've ever been - by a large margin! I didn't think we'd even get to hear most of the sermon - I think we only missed a minute or two, though. I was disappointed that we missed most of the music, but it was mostly my fault. My hips are apparently much less inclined to shrink this time, so I have a harder time finding something to wear.

My grandparents are coming from Minnesota this week, so it should be an exciting one!