What a weekend!

Brad worked extra for nine days so that he could be off last Friday for a family day. We got to sleep in a little late, and then he went for a haircut. I somehow managed to injure my neck while towel-drying my hair, so I was glad Brad was off for the day! I never appreciate the value of free range of motion until it's impaired. We did family pictures at the mall at 11, but unfortunately Samuel was extremely skittish and therefore uncooperative. We only were able to get him in a picture of all four of us, and I had really wanted to get some pictures of he and Audrey by themselves, and pictures of both of us with the kids separately. Oh, well. Life goes on.

Our main goal for the day was actually to go to the Great Pumpkin Patch, since it's less busy during the week and most things are cheaper. Unfortunately, it rained all day. We called the pumpkin patch to see if they were even open due to the weather, and they were closing for the day right when we called. So glad we did that, because we would've been quite disappointed if we would've driven all the way there! We ended up just spending some good time together at home and then had supper with family at my parents' house. Yummy chicken and rice!

We've recently been on the hunt for a new digital camera, mainly now because ours is starting to make funny noises and I'm afraid it will die all of a sudden and I'll be crippled without a camera! Brad's been researching them for sometime now, with the idea of investing in a back-up camera, so I started looking at the ones he liked. I have since spent many hours reading and comparing, and it's actually becoming more difficult to decide the more I research. I'm very tempted to go the DSLR route, since I do mainly take pictures of my children, one who moves very fast and one who will soon enough! The main thing that is keeping me from investing in one is that I like to have my camera with me everywhere I go, in case of a good photo op or just to document day to day life. I can't afford to buy both a DSLR and a new point & shoot, so it's quite a dilemma. The main feature I want is good light capturing ability, which I know is the main point of any type of camera, but they don't all do it as well as I'd like. The camera we currently have, a Fuji F20, does a good job in my opinion, and I'm so afraid I'll end up being worse off when we purchase a new one. We've gone and tried out several cameras at different stores, although we'll likely be buying whatever we choose off of Amazon, but I'm getting less sure of what I want the more we try them out. Any input would be appreciated in this matter.

We made it out to the Great Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, after hitting some garage sales. The weather was beautiful, but it was very busy. Samuel again was quite uncooperative, so it was not as enjoyable as last year. He did enjoy the petting zoo and the pumpkin patch itself, but it was hard to "corrall" him. I don't remember there being so many stinging insects last year, but we avoided injury. I did sit in a huge puddle of water just a few minutes after we arrived, on a swing that Samuel was attempting to get into. I'm sure it looked lovely. I'm glad we went again, but I wish we could've helped Samuel to have a better time somehow. Maybe next year!

Saturday night we had a fun supper with our good friends the Kennedys. Samuel loves their 5 year old daughter, Jada, and it was so cute to see them run to each other and embrace when we met. She is so good at keeping him entertained. We had originally talked about going to the pumpkin patch with them, but we couldn't get our schedules coordinated. Samuel might've had a better time.

I made a yummy cinnamon spice cake for breakfast yesterday - I originally saw it on Paula Deen, which I never watch! We had a disatrous time getting to church. Brad went to church early to practice for the Praise Team. While I was in the shower, Samuel managed to pull all the books off of one of the shelves in his room. I of course got behind on my target time to leave, and things always go wrong when you try to rush out the door. Audrey's cute pacifier clip broke while I was dressing her. Samuel temporarily lost one of his shoes and it took me several minutes to find it. Then he fell down the steps while heading for the garage. I got Audrey out of her bouncy seat and she was covered in poop. I was glad on the one hand, because she hadn't gone in three days and I was starting to get concerned, but then it ruined the outfit I had her in and I had already put Samuel in his car seat, so he waited for us down there. When we got to the car, he had pulled off his socks and shoes again! Audrey spit up all over herself as soon as I put her in her car seat, which she does all the time. I realized about halfway to church that I had forgotten Samuel's cup and he doesn't know how to use sippy cups, just straws. Best of all, we were almost side-swiped by a woman who cut us off at the new double turn lane onto South Shades Crest Road from Hwy 150 and I had to slam on my brakes in the middle of the intersection! I was glad no one was behind me. Since she already had herself covered, Audrey spit up all over me as soon as I got settled in church. It was a "fun" morning.

We made in to the evening service, although pretty late. Audrey was quite fussy on our way home, and we discovered when we got home that she was once again covered in poop! I gave her a quick bath and you could tell she felt so much better. We were all doing well until Audrey woke up at 3:45 to eat. She's had a cold for the past few days and her little nose was so stuffed up, poor thing! I noticed that I was quite sore and full on my left side, but didn't think much of it. After I laid Audrey back down, I tried to go back to sleep as always, but I suddenly I had shaking chills and just couldn't warm up. I even got up and put on sweatpants, and sweatshirt and very thick socks and my teeth were chattering! I couldn't go back to sleep, so after I fed Audrey again around 5:30, I checked my temperature and got online for a minute. I didn't have a true fever, but 100.7 felt pretty awful! I'm pretty sure I had/have mastitis, and I'm thankful I had my 6 week check-up this afternoon. I was worried about being put on antibiotics, but what I read said the best treatment is feeding your baby. I can definitely do that! Back to the rest of the "night." I woke up with Audrey again at 7:40 (I'm not sure why she woke up so much - she usually doesn't), and I was drenched in sweat! I took off all of the warm clothing I had and put my nightgown back on, and I was still so hot! Brad went to work an hour late just to make sure I was going to be okay. It was a weird night.

Better tend to the kiddos.

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.