Autumn Sweater

So we all have colds. I'm not sure who had the first cold, but it doesn't matter b/c now we all have them. Thankfully the kids aren't too affected. Gus just really has a runny nose that I have to wipe every two seconds, and Cleo has been coughing and has a bit of a runny nose, as well. I think Andy and I got the worst of it...we've been pretty sick the past couple of days. I had to leave work early yesterday b/c I literally couldn't keep my head off my desk. I've been taking Tylenol Cold and Sinus b/c it's a safe medication while I'm nursing, and it's helping. I think the worst of it is lifting for us, though, so that's good. I guess it's to be expected with the cold, rainy weather we've had.

Speaking of the weather, I LOVE fall. So much. So, so much. I've been drinking hot apple cider and chai tea and enjoying the beautiful trees here in Lawrence. It's supposed to stay chilly and rainy, so that's awesome. Such great cardigan weather. And such great Halloween weather. I heard the Yo La Tengo song "Autumn Sweater" the other day on KJHK and it just made my day. Such an appropriate song for the season.

I'm working from home today. Currently Cleo is sleeping and Gus is watching his new Yo Gabba Gabba DVD. He LOVES it. He asks me to put it on all the time, so that is fun. I also love Yo Gabba Gabba. I could watch it by myself for hours! It's so kooky. I'm trying to move Cleo to her crib for naps. Slowly but surely, anyway. Usually I just put her on her playmat or in her little baby seat to nap (or in our bed...she loves napping in our bed), but I'm trying to slowly move her in the direction of napping in her bed. She sleeps great in the crib at night, so it shouldn't be an issue. But she seems to wake up pretty quickly when she's napping there, for some reason. So far she's been in there for about 20 minutes, so that's good!

The kids are great. Cleo is just a doll and her little thighs are chubbing up and I love it. She has blocked tear ducts and we've gone to the doc a couple of time for it, but the eye drops they gave us aren't doing much. I guess we cannot really "fix" it until she's at least 6 months old, b/c most pediatric eye docs don't see babes until they are at least that old. It doesn't affect her sight or anything, but she's constantly "crying" from her eyes and she has the most gigantic eye boogers in the morning. Gus didn't have blocked tear ducts, so this is a new one for us.

Gus is hilarious...and so great. I really enjoy just hanging out with him. He's really speaking in full sentences these days, which is so fun. Here are some fun things he's been saying:

• (at breakfast): "Mom, I want chicken nuggets" or "Momma, I want hot dogs"
• (from the moment he wakes up): "Momma, I want to go in the car...the GRAY car" (he prefers the Camry to the Buick these days)
• "Momma, I wanna pay now..." (he means "I want to play")
• "Hello, everybodeeeeee!" (that's from one of his Sesame Street toys, and he says it quite often)
• "Momma, I wanna go on a walk"
• "Momma, I want candeeeeee" (he's discovered candy, which scares me...oh, and cookies, too)

You may have noticed a pattern...he starts most things off with "Momma" and it's so funny. He always pauses after saying, "Momma..." for the full effect. It cracks me up.

No photos to post this week. I'll post some after Halloween. Gus is probably going to be a spider and Cleo will either be a bear or a pumpkin.

Until later...

Family ties

Gus as a newborn

Gus at 3 months


Cleo as a newborn


Cleo at 2.5 months

Here are some fun comparison photos of Gus and Cleo. I think there are similarities, but differences, as well. I can't wait to see what color of hair and eyes she has!

Here I go again on my own...

I had to work the Whitesnake title...sorry about that. :)

So this week I'm returning to my single mom ways, hence the blog title. Andy starts his travel schedule up again. He's out of town throughout a good portion of the rest of the month and most of November. I'm sad but I know it's part of the deal. I know folks do it every day, but I haven't had to manage both kids and work yet. It'll be fine, though, I'm sure. I do feel so much more comfortable with both kids now than I did when Cleo was first born, and I think it'll just get even easier with time.

We had a nice weekend in Iowa. Andy fished with his dad and his dad's best friend up near the borders of Iowa/Minnesota/Wisconsin . They had a great time. I was alone w/ the kids Friday so I took the kids downtown (Iowa City) to walk around and see the University. I think Gus had a great time. Sally returned from Michigan Friday night and we all hung out the rest of the weekend. Gus had a blast with Gma and Gpa, and I believe Cleo did, too. :) They both did so well. We took a little tour of some of the areas of the town affected by the terrible flood in June. It was so depressing to see entire neighborhoods of empty ruined houses, gutted businesses, etc...so crazy. The city is rebuilding but it's going to take a few years to return to normal. We took a nice hike w/ the kids and Dave on Saturday. Gus loved picking up sticks and leaves. It took us awhile to finish the walk b/c he stopped quite often. :)

So, nursing an infant in the back of our car at rest stops and/or gas stations along the way was somewhat awkward, but I managed. I thankfully had a nice blanket that covered all the important bits. I even nursed Cleo in a McDonald's parking lot while Gus munched on McNuggets. Hilarious!

I return to work Wednesday. I should find out the fate of my job this week as the University is supposed to announce the fine arts restructuring plan (finally). We shall see.

Our Obama/Biden yard sign arrived, so we're proudly representing. Yahoo!

Good times, good times

The weekend has been nice, and it has flown by, of course.

Friday night I went to a "girl's night" at our friend Jessica's house. She had the ladies over (no kids, no significant others) and it was lovely. I had a great time and met a few new people. I also enjoyed two large glasses of wine and some yummy food, and it was so great. I stayed until 11pm...late for me these days! Saturday was a day full of chores and whatnot. We went over to Tom and Marisa's for dinner Saturday night. We have such a great time over there. They made pizzas and salad and we had some beers. Later Saturday night the guys all got together and played poker, so I stayed home w/ the kids. Today we went to a pumpkin patch outside of Lawrence and found our pumpkin. It was really fun, but super dusty out there. Andy's allergies were so bad for the rest of the day and he went to bed early tonight b/c of that and a sick stomach. I hope he's not getting sick...We cleaned up the house today and watched the White Sox (finally) win a game in their playoff series.

This week is going to be busy. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my personal trainer. Tuesday I'm going to my hair salon to get highlights (much needed), and Tuesday night is the debate. Wednesday I'm going in to work for a couple of hours to (re)train for my job, and then Thursday we leave for our weekend trip to Iowa. It will be nice to visit Sally and Dave, and Andy is going to fish with his Dad on Friday.

The kids are doing well. Gus is just so funny these days, saying new things literally every day. He loves going for car rides and walks, so I am optimistic that the 5-6 hour car ride to Iowa City will go well. I think Cleo should do okay, but we'll have to stop to feed her, I imagine. She's still eating about every 3-4 hours, and she's been doing great at night. She either sleeps all night or wakes up just once to eat. She's been going to bed rather early, which is awesome for us (around 8pm). I think that has helped her get on somewhat of a schedule at night. She isn't on a nap schedule yet during the day, and I can't remember how we got Gus on a day nap schedule! I hope it happens naturally for Cleo. Perhaps being at daycare will help. I'm still nursing, and I still don't really know how long I'll continue. I am leaning toward supplementing with formula when Cleo is at daycare and then nursing her in the morning, at night and when I'm working from home. I just really just hate pumping. But then again, I may try to pump a little at work if it isn't too terrible. We'll just see how it goes...I figure I'll continue to nurse at least part time until around 4 months (or a bit more). I'm happy I've made it this far! :)

I can't believe that in just over a week I'll be back at work. I'm really rather sad about it. I've enjoyed being home with both kids and not having anything else to do. But I also look forward to being busy and seeing my coworkers again. Hopefully it'll go okay.

ek

It's the final countdown...

I have 2.5 weeks left of maternity leave. I'm sad but also somewhat excited to return to the world of adults. However, I believe there's quite a bit of drama going on at my job right now b/c of restructuring, so I'm not excited to return to that. But it'll be nice to get back into my routine.

Cleo had her 2-month appointment today. She's 11 lbs. 8 oz., in the 60th % of weight. She's almost 22", in the 20% for height. So she's a short little chunk right now. She had her first immunization shots, and that was of course no fun. But she did a great job and only cried a bit. I hate the newborn cry. It's so heartbreaking.

Friday night we went to Marisa and Tom's for a happy hour. It's always so fun to go over there. We then ordered pizza and watched the debate later Friday night at home. Saturday night we went to Kansas City to the Octoberfest at Crown Center with Dan, Leah and Bea. Gus ran all over the place, so I was super tired at the end of the night from chasing him around. Bea was such a great help with Gus. She held his hand all night. Gus went in the moonwalk for the first time. He wasn't sure about it, but I think he had fun. Gus and Bea also danced to a fun kid's band. They were singing a song called "Puddle Jumper" and Gus jumped and jumped all over the place.

This week I have my first session with my personal trainer. She's creating a personalized workout for me, so we meet Wednesday to review that plan and run through it together. Then I'm meeting with her two more times for one-on-one training. I hope this is the kick-in-the-pants I need to get back to my goal weight.

I think I'm going to decorate for Halloween today. I've been looking forward to October for some time now, and it's right around the corner. Yeah...

ek

TGISaturday

This week has flown by for some reason. I think the last month of maternity leave always flies by...of course that's right when the babe starts to interact, so you want to slow down time!

Cleo is doing great. She is a chubby little muffin, which is fun. I love the baby chubs. She turns 2 months next week, and she has her 2 month checkup in a week, so I'm excited to see what she weighs. My guess is that she weighs around 11-12 pounds right now. She is smiling now, so I basically spend most of my time trying to make her smile! I'm probably jinxing things, but this past week she has really slept like a champ. She went from waking up 1-2x a night to sleeping from about 8 or 8:30pm to around 6:00am straight through. She's done this a few times this week, and it's been lovely. I hope it continues.


Gus is also great. He says new words every day, so this is a really fun time. He is absolutely and positively in love with the alphabet and numbers right now. From the moment he wakes to the moment he goes to bed, he wants to play with all his alphabet toys. He pretty much knows the entire alphabet and sings the ABC song with us. He's growing up so fast. We tried on a bunch of his 2T clothes recently and most of them are too small. I had to buy him a couple of pairs of 3T jeans the other day. They are too long, but otherwise they fit great.

It is fun to have overlapping maternity leave with my friend, Mo. We all went to South Park yesterday and Gus had a blast. Mo and Zeke and Cleo and I hung out in the shade while Gus went down the slide a billion times. I met another young mom who had two kids 18-months apart. She was very cool...she welcomed me to the "2 under 2" club. She said she doesn't miss the early days when her second kid was a newborn (uh, yeah...), but she says now it's really fun and worth it. Her son is now 2 1/2 and her daughter is a year old.

This weekend is pretty chill. I would love to take the kids downtown today to the KU Band Day parade (always a fave of mine...love marching bands!), but it's during Gus' naptime, so we'll see. He's going to miss his nap tomorrow b/c we're going to a family reunion in Burlingame, so it's going to be interesting. He's always a bit wound up when he misses his nap. The reunion should be fun...I get to see a lot of folks I haven't seen in years. Plus it's a potluck, so that's always a good time.

I've been hitting the gym about 4-5x a week since joining...I hope to keep it up. I may work with a personal trainer to customize a workout plan. We'll see. I've been taking the kids to the gym daycare and that's working out pretty well so far.


Until later!

Let's hear it for the boys

My friend Leah called last night to tell us they had a sonogram yesterday and they are having a boy! I had a "girl vibe" which just goes to prove once again that I am not a very intuitive person when it comes to predicting baby genders! I'm so excited for Dan and Leah and Bea. How fun. Leah said she's a little bewildered about having a boy, b/c it's a whole new world. I still feel that way about having a girl! Sometimes I even call Cleo "he" b/c I'm so used to having a boy around. I'll get used to it soon, I'm sure! It must be the year of the boy, b/c all our friends are having little dudes.

I (re)joined a gym and I'm taking Cleo to the daycare there for the first time today so I can work out. Wish me luck...I hope she does ok. I honestly really loathe working out, but I'm more motivated to lose this baby weight than I was with Gus, so I'm optimistic.

I LOVE this weather. I hope it stays around, even if it does mean that many of Cleo's new summer outfits won't see any wear. We need to buy her a little cardigan sweater!

ek