Family Photo

Officially my favorite picture from Johnny's wedding.

The only thing that would make it better is if Brecken would be in it.

Heavy and Light

Brecken has a cardiology appointment this morning.  The paperwork we received in the mail told us to plan on at least a two hour appointment and another EKG.  It makes my skin crawl and my anxiety up about 50 notches thinking about driving to the hospital AGAIN.  However, I am grateful for amazing doctors at Children's, time off to go to all these appointments and health insurance.  At his two month physical Dr. Stang thought his heart murmur sounded minimal, which means (long story short) the bicuspus (sp?) valve seems not so bad right now.  The longer he waits for a procedure the better.  We'll get a better and more thorough look today though.  I can't wait until it's over.

On a lighter note... Brecken was a champion sleep last night.  He went to sleep at 9:20 and woke at 1:30 to eat.  He didn't wake again until almost 6.  I fed him and put him back in his cradle when I heard Victoria up.  I heard Brecken 'talking' in there at 7:30 and I peeked at him and he was just looking around as happy as can be.  So I pumped, made the kids breakfast and took a shower and checked on him again.  He was sleeping again.  So the kids and I got ready for the day and had a peaceful morning together.  I waited until the LAST minute to wake Brecken because it breaks my heart to wake a sleeping child.  He was smiling and laughing and so happy when I picked him up.  Christian and I were all up in his face talking to him and smothering him with kisses as I took his clothes off.  There's nothing cuter than a chubby naked baby so I was kissing his belly when he started peeing everywhere.  I put him hand of it to only make it spray in different directions - everywhere!  I had him on my bed so I started pulling the sheets and mattress pad off immediately.  Christian helped a ton.  All three of us were laughing and then Brecken spit up (he never spits up so this was crazy!) right onto the mattress and down the side of his face into his chubby little neck and armpit.

I went through the rest of the wipes cleaning the mattress and then gave him a quick 'bath' in the bathroom sink.

Incredibly, we got everyone loaded up, stopped at the library to return our materials, loaded our borrowed goods into Odelis' car at school and still dropped Victoria off for school four minutes early.

40th & an Overnight

When Victoria was a baby I didn't leave her over night until she was more than a year old.  Can you believe that?!  Christian was about six months old before I let him go to Grandma's over night.  My third child?  He was the ripe ol' age of just about three weeks.

My friend Amanda, who I love and adore turned 40 just a couple weeks after I had Brecken.  My friends and I began planning her 40th birthday since she turned 39 last year.  It got a little tricky with my due date only two weeks prior. 

After a lot of talk about what, exactly, we'd do to celebrate we finally decided on a hotel room at Embassy Suites.  I got there before everyone else and had it decorated and when everyone arrived we celebrated with cocktails and apps for a couple hours.
Then we took the shuttle to Mall of America and had dinner at Cantina #1.  

Don't ask me why the waiters jumped in our one and only group pictures.

Don't ask me why we have one and only group shot on such a special night either.

After dinner we headed over to Dick's Last Resort for a drink or two and then went back to Cantina #1 when the DJ arrived.  We danced the night away....until 2am.

We had a blast and there aren't any pictures or video that are suitable for this blog;-)

We took the light rail back to the hotel.  I had never been on the light rail before and was amazed how it was just waiting for us and took us right to the hotel for free.

I said to Odelis at 2:30am while I had my heals in my hand, "Man, I didn't know the light rail was free!"

"It isn't.  We just didn't pay," she responded. 

"Oh, well, you'll have to teach me how to get on right sometime," I said.

I was just happy we all made it back to the hotel together!

I am so happy I did make it out to celebrate Amanda, even if I did have to pump several times through the festivities.

It was totally worth it.

I love when I'm listening to the radio now and a song comes on and I have a flashback of dancing with one of those crazy girls that night.  It was a ton of fun!

Quote of the Day

I love quotes and this is a powerful and very true one: 

The way we talk to our children become their inner voice.

Kelsey's Shower

My cousin Kelsey is getting married in two months.  On Saturday her sister and I threw her, her very first Bridal Shower.  It was a gorgeous day and a delightful shower.

We played the game where the guests guess the how many answer she will get right from the questions I asked her fiance.  I love that game!  It gives a lot of insight into the couple and always provides lots of laughs.  

I watch taking pictures of her while she was opening gifts and I got tears in my eyes thinking about her opening Christmas gifts when she was about 3 years old.  I would have been about 12 and I always thoughts she was just the cutest little thing.  She still is, but it's hard to believe she's about to become a wife.

I can't wait to see her on her wedding day!

Six Hours

Last night Christian had his second tball game.  His cheering fan section was in full effect.  Despite the rain that is.  Would brought chairs, umbrellas, a stroller, a diaper bag and (of course) a baby.  This poor baby was passed around in the rain while being held with just a receiving blanket around him and his thin little hood up.  I don't believe he was cold, he was good and snuggled up to each and every person who held him, but still, poor kid was out in the rain for crying out loud. He cried the entire (3 miles) home.  When we got home I gave him a warm bath (which he loved) fed him lots of delicious warm milk, put warm jammies on him and cuddled him up on the couch while we both fell asleep.  Mark put him in his cradle at 9:30 and I also went to bed.  Two nights ago we moved the cradle to his room, right inside the door, so his little squeaks don't wake me up all night.  He slept until 3:30am!  That's six straight hours of sleep.  I woke at 2am (Christian woke me actually to tell me he would like to sleep on the floor in my room - he was promptly directed back to the comforts of his own bed).  I needed to pump or feed something fierce but I knew he'd wake soon enough.  I guess he was all worn out from an exciting night of tball.  Hopefully we have better weather for Victoria's game tonight but the same end result!

Where's the Sleep?

Last week I had a couple rough days on the home front.  Brecken was only happy when he was being held, which is fine for the first half of the day then I start to get tired and look around the house at the 100 things I'd like to get done, and then my shoulders start aching from holding him and I feel guilty for not giving more time to Christian.  I start to daydream about Mark coming home and saving me only for me to promptly fall asleep as soon as I hand off the baby to him.  Then I got some good sleep over the weekend, had to feed Brecken only ONCE on Sunday night, got recharged and we had the best day ever yesterday.  When Mark walked in the door I said, "I was Stay at Home Mom Extraordinaire today!!"  Which I really was.  Brecken slept great.  I made an effort to watch his cues and made sure he went to sleep every single time he showed he was sleepy and made sure he wasn't over stimulated all day long.  He slept a lot and when he was awake he was always happy and smiled a lot.  I got a ton done around the house and even stayed up late enough to catch the TWINS game in its entire 11 innings.

But then.....Brecken would not stay asleep.  All effing night long.  Sleep for an hour..wake.  Sleep for an hour...wake.  Begins to drive you completely crazy by the 4th hour of exhaustion.  At 2:30 I finally had it and put him in his carseat and walked him around the house.  It's my last resort but it always works.  I just don't want it to become a bad habit.  But this time, holy crap, even that wouldn't get him to sleep.  I was pretty frustrated and at 2:40am I grabbed my car keys and put the baby in the car.  I thought, this is dramatic but at least I know it will work FOR SURE.  I figured I'd take a 5 min drive and he'd be out and I'd be out too - when I got home of course.

However, after FORTY minutes the kid was still making noise!!!!!!  I actually wondered out loud if he would ever sleep again.  Clearly the problem was he was so over tired he couldn't settle down.  I finally gave in and came home.  I nursed him and feel asleep as I heard the birds begin to chirp with him in bed with Mark and me and eventually he fell asleep and slept in this morning.

REALLY hoping for more sleep tonight!

I started writing this, this morning.  It's now nearly 2am the following night and I've gotten four full hours already tonight.  Yeah!