Day care

As you probably know, I work from home part time. The past couple of months have been a bit slow at my work and just a week or two ago, it's completely stopped. They have more than enough help at the office and I've been lucky to work on the few cases I have been from before I had Acadia.

Matt and I went back and forth - find another part time job or don't work at all and take Acadia out of day care. In the end, we decided that it would be much easier to just not work - trying to find a job where I am only able to work Monday and Friday mornings would prove to be difficult, I'm sure, and in the end, it didn't seem like it would pay off - financially or emotionally.

Acadia will still be in day care for the next month, then she'll be home with me full time again!

In case you're wondering if I feed my daughter enough?

I just came out from our bedroom to find Acadia eating a pancake. From breakfast this morning. That she found in the garbage can.

And to make matters worse, the only thing I could think to yell is, "What are you doing? Are you seriously eating food from the trash can?! Only homeless people do that, Acadia!" Nice, mom. It's a good thing she still doesn't understand half of what I say...

Christmas book, Day #2

Today we read the book, Was That Christmas? What a cute book! I loved the illustrations!

Obsessions

There is a word we use a lot around here....
OBSESSED!

I was “tagged” by Meghan for this “obsession” post. Acadia has definitely hit the age where she is obsessed about certain things, so this is a perfect way to document what she’s been into lately!

Acadia's latest Obsessions, at 20 months old:

1. Elmo – There is no other way to say it. She’s obsessed. I made the mistake of renting an Elmo video at the library about a month ago and she’s been obsessed ever since. Before, she really like him. Now? Obsessed. She asks for Elmo about 10 times a day, and I have to distract her with other things so that I’m not playing the darn movie every day.

2. Blankey – My Aunt Mimi sewed Acadia a quilt for Christmas last year. Since then, she has slept with it every night, but it hasn’t been until the past couple of months that she asks for it during the day and wraps herself up in it constantly. When we go places, you can usually find “blankey” tagging along.

3. Food – If I had a dollar for every time she asked for a “cack” (snack), I would be rich. And I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything without her running up to me and asking, “Bite? Pease? Bite? Pease?”

4. Monkey – I don’t remember if we bought her a stuffed monkey or if it was a gift, but she’s obsessed with her monkey! She brings him everywhere with her – if you remember our family portraits taken this past September, “monkey” was in half of them! LOL!

5. Slides – “Side? Side?” This is another thing I get asked about on a daily basis – she loves going on our little slide we bought her recently. Even better – she loves the big kid slides at the playgrounds we go to. I swear, this kid has no fear!

Mommies obsessions:

1. Acadia - let's be honest, I've devoted a whole blog to my girl, I have to be just a little bit obsessed. (Ummm…I’m just going to have to steal your answer on this, Meghan – I couldn’t have said it better myself!)

2. Matt – If he only knew the amount of times I thought about him throughout the day! I like him.

3. Taking pictures- I wasn’t into photography before I had Acadia, but after having her and starting the blog, I take pictures daily!

4. Christmas music- Ok, breath….go ahead, you can say it….. “My name is Jennifer and I’m addicted to Christmas music.” I’ve been playing it for weeks now and my sister has made fun of me more times than I care to remember. I don’t care. I love Christmas!

5. Blogging- I am surprised at how much I love blogging. It started out as a way for me to update my family with things going on with Acadia and has expanded to an on-line diary for me. It’s now a huge part of my life and I truly enjoy it!

There. Now that I've been tagged, I'll tag the following to tell us about your obsessions:

Alissa, Holly, Kyler, LeeAnn and Melissa

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

To get Acadia accustomed to Christmas and everything that comes along with it - Santa, presents, a Christmas tree, reindeer, etc. - I am reading a new Christmas book to her every day from now until Christmas. I went to the library today to get a bunch of books to last us a week, and once they have been read, I will keep them out for her to look at.

Today, we read "My First Christmas Board Book" which was really cute!

I remember Monday

I remember...giving you your first bath after you came home from the hospital. I was so nervous I was going to break one of your fingers off or worse! We had to do a bit of a dry bath because of your umbilical cord, so we put you in the tub and used wash clothes to pat you with soap and water. You cried the whole time because you were freezing cold! (For the record, it was only a little bit funny...) After you were done, I wrapped you up nice in warm in one of your baby blankets. At the time, I thought you would never "fit" into your blankets - they were huge on you! We've come a long way since then, and don't worry - I'm no longer worried about breaking your fingers off when bathing you! LOL!

Some time off

As you have probably noticed, I took a bit of a vacation from blogging during the holiday. It was nice to spend some time with family and friends, although it's always sad that long weekends FLY by!

Here are some updates:

~We went to my Aunt Mimi's for Thanksgiving and ate and ate and ate!! Acadia passed on the turkey and chose cookies instead! (Not a bad choice, if you ask me!)
~On Friday, my mom, sister, Aunt Brenda and I did our annual luncheon downtown at the Church Street Tavern. My cousin Beth, from Boston, surprised Miche and I by joining us - it was SOO fun!!! She is the funniest and so beautiful - I always have fun with Beth! After lunch, we went to the candy store and to look for wedding dresses for Miche
~Saturday morning we went to Albany, NY to look for wedding dresses again. Miche found the most perfect dress!! It is absolutely beautiful and she looks stunning in it! I can't wait until August 8th!
~Yesterday we had a pretty lazy day in the morning then went to my sister in law's house for a Thanksgiving dinner. Since we were at my family's house for Thanksgiving, Matt's family wanted to do another Thanksgiving with us there.
~Today was super productive - I dropped Acadia off at day care, then ran home to send out our Christmas cards, throw in a load of laundry, returned an outfit for Acadia and picked up some new snow pants, made another return at Michaels, ran to the grocery store, picked up some Christmas books and movies at the local library, visited my cousin Kirstin and picked up the wreath we ordered from her, finished our Christmas shopping and came home to do more laundry!

Now, I'm tired and ready to put Acadia down for the night, have some dinner with Matti and relax!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day...we are headed to my aunt's house this afternoon for some yummy food, drinks, and of course, a little laughter...have a happy Thanksgiving! xo

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Cadi

Happy birthday Uncle Jimmy!

Jimmy ~ You are seriously the best uncle Acadia could ever have....you are so natural with her and I love, love, love seeing the way she reacts when she sees you. You and "Auntie Sissy" are on quite a pedestal with that girl :) Have a happy birthday!!

Love,

M, J & A

Bookgroup

I have been in an amazing book group for 3 years, now, and I've been meaning to share with you some of our picks. I am always looking for a book recommendation and am curious as to what others are reading, so I thought, Why not just share our books once a month?

A small overview of our book group: We meet once a month over wine, cheese and dinner to discuss the book. At the end of book group, after we are stuffed from dessert, we rate the book on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest).

The November book was Pat Conroy's My Losing Season. I have realized as I'm typing this that this month isn't the best month for me to start sharing our book group reads, as I didn't read this book! LOL! The month slipped away from me and I never went out to buy it. In any case, it got a rating of 6.19 and the discussion last night was great!

Baby Paradee

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and heard the heartbeat again! Is there a better sound in the world? I think not. The baby sounds good and I feel great - things are moving along, and May will be here before we know it! We can't wait :)

I remember Monday

I remember...nursing you in the very beginning. I knew I wanted to nurse, but also knew I wouldn't beat myself up if it didn't work out for either of us. Going into it, I had the "I'll give it a shot" attitude and knew that formula would be a backup plan, and one that I was absolutely fine with.

Oh my. I had no idea how much I would love nursing. From the second day you were born, I didn't have any problems with you latching on - no pain, etc. involved for me, and it just seemed easy from day one. What an empowering thing it was to be able to provide you with this type of nourishment. I was simply amazed at how much I love it, and how much closer it brought us together.

I would stare down at your little face and take in your eyes, checks, nose, lips...I would stare and stare until my neck would start to hurt. I loved sitting in our room in the rocking chair your grandma bought for us and rocked with you while I nursed. We would stare at each other for literally hours a day while I nursed....I had this feeling in my heart for you that you will not be able to understand until you have a daughter of your own. I have so many wonderful memories from the past 19 months of your life, but nursing you will always be one of my most fondest memory...

I feel....

rested! Oh my gosh - for the very first time since Acadia was born, I seriously feel completely rested! Yesterday was my day to sleep in (Matt and I alternate - I sleep in on Sat and he sleeps in on Sun) and I slept in until 10am! That never, ever happens - I think once your used to getting up at a certain time, your internal alarm clock wakes you up at that time every day.

We had an awesome day yesterday and got so much done around the house. I even wrapped all my Christmas presents! Then, last night we went on a double date with Lindsey and her husband Dave. Lindsey and Matt have known each other since they were kids, but this is the first time we have actually hung out with them. We went to Mexicali and had SO much fun! We ended up staying 2 1/2 hours just talking and laughing - they are awesome. Miche and Jimmy watched Acadia overnight, which was really cool - thanks guys!!! So that means that this am was my my second day in a row sleeping in until 10am :) I haven't done that in years!

I am headed over to Miche's soon for lunch and can't wait to see my girl. I break is always nice, but then I end up missing her like crazy! I hope you all had a good weekend!

Snow!

It snowed here for the first time this year a few days ago and it was so exciting to see Acadia's reaction - she was so excited! :)

Her new laugh

18 month appointment

We had Acadia's 18 month appointment this morning - I just love our pediatrician!! He's so awesome and I think Matt and I both look forward to our appointments and being able to chat with him. He always takes his time to answer all our questions, and is just a super nice guy!

Some updates:

~Acadia is 19 1/2 months old
~Height is 33 1/4 inches (75th %) and her weight is 20 pounds (4th %)
~She got her second chicken pox vaccine today

Things we talked about at the appointment:

~She has had a red eye (on the bottom of her eye on the skin) for a couple of months. We went in last month for eye drops. Brad gave us an ointment today that will hopefully help. He said her eye was nothing to worry about and that sometimes children have sensitive eyes/skin and it could take a couple of months to go back to a normal color
~She hasn't been eating that well for the past few weeks, ever since her last cold. We asked Brad if we should be giving vitamins, and he said not to worry - he very rarely recommends vitamins, as normally children get what they need from the food they eat. He also said kids go through phases where they will eat more some weeks/months and eat less during other weeks/months
~We give snacks twice a day - in the morning and the afternoon, after her nap. Sometimes she asks for snacks in between, and I was unsure if she was asking because she was really hungry, or bored. Brad said that kids her age don't ask for snacks for any other reason than they are hungry, and that it's ok to give her snacks if she asks for them
~We asked about transitioning her into her new room. (When the baby gets here, he/she will go into Acadia's nursery, and Acadia will move down the hall into her "big girl room") Brad said the sooner the better to make that transition. We told him we were planning on doing it next month and he said that was perfect. We were also going to transition her into a toddler bed, and he said he would wait until she was closer to her 2nd birthday.
~We asked about getting her ready to welcome her baby sibling into the family, and he told us the more we talk about the baby, the better. To tell Acadia that the baby is in mommy's belly, to get her involved in getting the nursery ready, and when the baby is born, to have Acadia help out - getting diapers for mommy and daddy, wipes, etc.
~We asked about discipline, and Brad said that redirection was the best tactic at this age, as well as ignoring the tantrums. He said that toddlers throw tantrums to get a reaction from their parents, and it's best to walk away, not react to their tantrum, and give them space. Then come back after a bit and redirect.

TFT - Holidays

When Matt and I first started dating, we spent every holiday with both sides of the family. This means that for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and the 4th of July, we were going to Matt's family, my dad's side of the family and my mom's side of the family. My mom said to my during one holiday a few years into our relationship, "Do you realize that you and Matt fight every single holiday?" I tried to argue with her, then realized that she was right. We would always be late leaving the first party and make the second party annoyed, because we were late for their party. Either we would hold up dinner, opening up presents, etc. and it would be frustrating for our families. On the way from one house to the other, Matt and I would be fighting and arguing - "We should have left a half hour ago! My family is waiting for us!" "I know, but my family didn't want us to leave and I wanted my aunt to finish the story she was telling me." Seriously. It was so stressful, I can't even explain. We ended up not having fun, not speaking to each other half the time and couldn't wait for the holidays to be over with.

Then, a few years ago, we decided to do what my mom's side of the family has been doing for quite some time now - the infamous "every other holiday". We decided that we would alternate spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter with our families. My family, having been through this already were fine - it would mean less fighting between Matt and I, and we would be able to actually enjoy our holidays. My inlaws, who had never had to part with any family members for the holidays didn't take it so well, but are getting better over the years.

Now, especially, that we have Acadia and another baby on the way, it is even more important to us that we do every other holiday. We don't ever want our kids to have the stress we had, and to have to run from house to house, just to be exhausted at the end of the day. Now when I miss Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I miss it. No big deal - I'll see them next year. When I miss Christmas, we'll make it up, so we can exchange presents, but Easter is the same as Thanksgiving - we'll see them the following year. It is heaven. It is so relaxing and we really, really enjoy each other, our extended families and holidays. I am especially looking forward to the holidays this year, because Acadia is at such a fun age. It is totally different, now as a mom, seeing the holidays, food and presents through her eyes - it's magical!!

TFT - What do you do for the holidays?

Wordless Wednesday: Shoe obsession

The wheels on the bus

I got this craft idea from my friend Cindy, and Acadia loved it!! As soon as I started cutting out the bus, she started saying, "Bus momma! Bus!" I cut everything out and she used the gluestick to glue on all the pieces. She had so much fun and it was adorable to hear her repeating "bus" when working on her project!