Friday Quick Takes (54)

 

--- 1 ---

I guess it's time to cut Anthony's hair again.  He got called a girl three times last night.  One lady insisted that "he cannot be a boy, he's just way too pretty!".  I don't know what shouted "girl" about the navy blue shark outfit and blue and orange tennis shoes he was sporting, but I guess people just can't get past those curls and eyelashes!

Yup.  He's always eating.

--- 2 ---

During Mass last night, when the priest said , "with Francis our Pope", Anna declared "Yay Pope Francis Be Quiet!"  Everyone around us laughed.  What she meant was "Yay, I love Pope Francis!  Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be quiet in Mass..."  However, it sounded like she was shushing our Pope.

--- 3 ---

Anna had some kind of weird virus or infection or something over the weekend.  She only got sick twice, but then her poop bottom was so raw that she refused to pee for like 48 hours.  She cried every time we put her on the potty, "Anna butt hurt!"  We tried everything and finally on Sunday afternoon (Happy Mother's Day to me...) I caved and took her to PromptCare.  Of course they wanted a urine sample.  I tried to explain that he hadn't peed in 2 days, did they really think that sitting on a strange potty with a promise of a silly sticker was going to do it?  

Well, after an hour and a half, a full on tickle fest, a promise of some ice cream and a piece of grandma's carrot cake, AND the sticker, she finally gave them the required amount for a urine sample.  Only to find out a few days later that it actually wasn't a UTI.  She's all better now, but for a few days, I felt like all our potty training efforts had restarted.  She hasn't had an accident in months and all of the sudden she'd lost control again.  Thankfully once her massive rash cleared up, she was back to her usual self.  I hope that virus never hits again! 

And every day since she begs me to take her to the doctor (because they give her stickers, of course) because she "needs mecine for my butt".

My sick girl.

--- 4 ---

That was the stinky part of Mother's Day, but reminded me of why I'm so very thankful to be a mom.  But when I got home, Jeremy had cleaned the entire house top to bottom while Anthony napped.  He thought of everything.  And then we went to my in-laws for dinner and my FIL had gotten an ice cream cake, my favorite.  Yum.  All in all, it was a nice Mother's Day, a wonderful chance to spend time with family and enjoy being the person who my babies call "Mama" (or "Ommy" as a certain toddler still insists on calling me).  

--- 5 ---

So I consider myself to have a "black thumb".  As opposed to a green thumb.  I kill everything.  Can't keep a plant alive to save myself.

So we planted some vegetables.  And some herbs (cause my last attempt at an herb garden was such a stellar succes...).  And lots of flowers.

We'll see how it goes.  But so far, things are looking good.  I have sprouts from all of my seeds and I haven't killed anything yet.  I think my success thus far has to do with a very enthusiastic 2 year old who LOVES to help water the plants.  It's now a daily activity (where it used to be something I ignored completely).  We recently got a rain barrel and she loves filling up her watering can.  We were also able to use some of our compost that's been composting for about 2 years now.

Filling up our watering cans with our new rain barrel.

She's such a good helper. 

--- 6 ---

We are just loving the park weather around here.  It finally feels like spring/summer and we are eating it up.  Most waking moments are spent outside around here.  And the sleeping moments are longer because of it.  I forget how beautiful our yard and trees are in the spring and summertime.  All of the sudden everything has life again.

--- 7 ---

Jeremy was on jury duty this week.  He actually got picked to be on a trial, a sexual assault case.  Yikes.  So anyway, every day when he got ready to leave, Anna asked her usual, "Daddy work today?"  But instead of our usual "Yes, daddy works today."  We said, "No, daddy has jury duty."  Anna walked around all week telling people that "daddy has duty today".  We got a few good laughs out of it.

So today we told her he was all done with his duty.  Jeremy took her to the bathroom when we were at the grocery store and she exclaimed, while in the men's room, with other occupied stalls that "Daddy all done duty."  And left it at that.  Jeremy was a little bit mortified.  I couldn't control my laughter.

And a completely unrelated but cute picture of my kiddos.  Anthony's so concentrated on what Anna's doing.  He just adores her. 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Silly Anna

Anna just saw me changing a pretty stinky Anthony diaper.

She pointed to his man parts and said, "Mommy, brobro has a tag!"

I still can't pull myself together enough to get lunch fixed.  That child is hysterical!

Friday Quick Takes (53)

--- 1 ---

Anna was whacking Anthony with a balloon today and he was cracking up.  I asked her to stop hitting her brother and she said, "Anna not hitting, Anna bonking."  Oh, okay, then I guess we're fine.  Stinker!

 

--- 2 ---

We scored a cute princess trike at a garage sale.  Anna loves her bike!

 

--- 3 ---

  Every time I walk up for communion at Mass, as the priest is giving Anthony a blessing, he shouts, "Hi!" and grins his irresistible grin.  It always makes the priest smiles and I'm sure it makes Jesus smile as well.   

 

--- 4 ---

We've enjoyed a few family walks and bike rides this week.  We actually had a few nice weather days in a row!  I love spending time with my little family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

--- 5 ---

Happy Baptism Anniversaries to my babies!  Both of our children so far have been Baptized on Mother's Day.  

 

 (And here is where I had super cute pictures of my kids with their godparents and for whatever reason, it won't load them.  No matter how many times I try)

 

--- 6 ---

Tomorrow is Birthmother's Day.  Our agency is having a balloon launch again this year.  We are attending with Anthony's birthmom.  The kids have made her a special flowerpot and cards.  We've also made a card for Anna's birthmom that she will hopefully be able to give her one day.  We are so incredibly thankful for these two women who have touched our lives in such an unimaginable way.  And I pray in a special way for the future birthmoms that will hopefully touch our lives.  Their sacrifice for their children is truly admirable. We feel so blessed to have adoption be such a huge part of our lives.  Adoption is the reason that I get to celebrate Mother's Day again this year.

 

--- 7 ---

Happy Mother's Day to all this weekend!  Especially the mothers in my life.  And a special prayer for all those women who have lost a mother, mothers who have lost a child, mothers who have undergone miscarriage(s), and all the women who so desperately desire to become mothers carrying the burden of infertility and those waiting to adopt.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

New job and PT

First up....

Jeremy starts a new job in 2 1/2 weeks!  He actually isn't unhappy where he's currently at, but he's come to a point in his current job where there's really nowhere for him to go, career wise.  He began as an actuary, taking the rigorous tests that allow you to move up as an actuary.  However, after getting married, dealing with infertility, having 2 kids back to back, he came to a stand-still with his exams.  As hard as he studied, he just couldn't quite find the time to make it a priority.  So he stopped taking the tests and took his role as a Technical Analyst.  This was fine for him.  He likes the work he does and he likes the company he works for.

The problem is that he works for an Actuary Consulting firm.  And he's not an actuary.  There's only so far you can go.  There's really no room for promotions or pay raises as a non actuary in this firm.  They value Jeremy as an employee but were struggling with where his job fell. 

So about a year ago he began applying to State Farm.  SF's headquarters are here and a significant portion of our town works for them.  They have a lot of opportunities for growth and career moves.  A few weeks ago, he managed to get an interview.  It was just an interest interview.  The Finance Department wanted to meet him, see where his skill sets are and see if he would be a good fit and where.  At the end of the interview, they told him not to apply to any more positions, that they had him on their list and would call him when something opened up!  This was great news!

His interview was on a Friday.  The following Monday, SF called.  They were offering him a job!  After background checks and drug tests, he got his final offer.  It's a pay raise for us and SF has great benefits (including an adoption assistance program) and a park/pool that I'm really excited about using this summer.  He starts after Memorial Day.  He will now be a Finance Analyst and he's super excited about what his job description entails.  I'm so excited for him!


Second...

We had Anthony's Global Screening done today for Early Intervention.  The great news is that aside from his gross motor skills, he's at or above his age in all of the other developmental areas.  Even his fine motor skills have improved enough to put him at a 12.5 month level (at just barely 13 months).  This is significant improvement in the few weeks since we've been waiting for the screening.

This showed the Developmental Therapist and Physical Therapist that it's not a neurological thing.  They don't see any signs of Cerebral Palsy or Muscular Atrophy or anything.  It seems to be more of a muscle tone/desire to move kind of thing.

However, in his gross motor skills, he's at a 7 month old level.  No shock there.  He sits, he rolls.  The end.  That puts him at a 54% delay.  30% qualifies him for services.  So he will be starting physical therapy once a week for at least the next 6 months.  Their early goal is to have him crawling in 6 months.  The PT was pretty confident that he'd be crawling well before them, but she wants to focus solely on that in the near future.  Once he starts crawling, they'll back off the PT to maybe every other week or even longer to see if he can motivate himself to start pulling up, cruising and eventually walking.  Once he's walking, they said they'll likely stop therapy since he shows no signs of being behind anywhere else.  The PT was confident that once they can get him moving and have him realize its benefits, he should quickly progress.

I was glad he qualified for EI.  At 13 months old, it's time for him to get moving.  I'm excited that he'll get the help he needs and that they can show me ways to help him also.  They can see that it's likely that he's gotten used to being able to use his cuteness (he seriously charms the daylights out of everyone and he would gladly choose socializing over playing with toys anytime) and his excellent verbal skills to get what he wants.  Having an extremely advanced older sister has been a crutch for him, making him lack the motivation to get started.

So begins our "get Anthony moving" journey.

Friday Quick Takes (52)

--- 1 ---

Exciting stuff around here!  I got an iPhone!  Jeremy and I have had "pay as you go" phones, with calling only, no texting, for some time to save money.  However, my parents are now able to have up to 10 devices on their plan, making it only $30 a month (which is what we were paying for our "dumb phones") for a smart phone.  So I stepped into this century and I now have a smart phone.  And texting.

 

--- 2 ---

Which leads me to #2...  Today I sent a pretty awkward text to my parents that was intended for my husband.  This texting dummy needs to double check who I'm sending things to next time...

 

--- 3 ---

 Seriously, this 2 year old is a hoot.  She does and says some of the funniest things.  She can sure be a handful (and that's quite an understatement) but at the end of the day, I look back and laugh at my crazy 2 year old and her silly quirks.

Anna's pile of "treasures".  She carries these odd items around with her all the time.  She especially loves the jewelry boxes.

She's opinionated about her shoes.  And apparently she didn't want to match yesterday...

She told me she was "going shopping Mama".  Complete with scarf, aka baby blanket, purse, and jewelry box.

She's petrified of bugs.  She saw like 3 ants on our patio and squealed like a little girl, climbed up on this stool and wouldn't get down.

Again with the shoes.  She lined them all up and counted them.

She became incredibly attached to a green pepper at the grocery store.  She kept trying to eat it like an apple.

 

--- 4 ---

I got my smart phone just in time.  I dropped my camera on the concrete.  It didn't survive.  So for now, it's iPhone pics.

 

--- 5 ---

 My little Anthony has me constantly smiling.  He's just so happy all the time!  And so darn cute!

 

Checking himself out in the mirror. 

Just drinking his milk in the driveway

His favorite activity

Picnic outside!

Movie night

Hanging out on the deck!

 

 

--- 6 ---

We've had lots of outside fun lately.  You know, for the 3 days it hasn't been raining.

Ice cream treat after daddy's softball game

Sliding

Anthony LOVES when Anna pushes him in the swing

When did my baby get big enough for the big kid swings?

Fixing her mower just like daddy

Watering our new grass

 

--- 7 ---

It's garage sale time!  Our neighborhood garage sale is this weekend and I've already gotten a princess trike for Anna.  I can't wait for her to try it out if it ever stops raining around here...

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!