Saturday & Sunday

May 31st & June 1st

The weekend flew by! We were so busy that I can't even remember half the things we did, so I'll just summarize. 

Saturday - we woke up, Justin made us pancakes and then we rushed out of the house to Lowes. The only reason we were rushing was to try and get there and back before Colleen's nap. I somehow have us on a very rigid schedule. I've tried to be more flexible, but Colleen loses it if things aren't in order. This is both good & bad. Good in that we have a routine and I can pretty much guess down to the second when a meltdown is coming or when she needs milk. Bad in that life doesn't go as planned and when our schedule is thrown off, she gets CRAZY!

So I tried rushing us through Lowes. Justin wants an automatic nail gun for Father's Day, so we checked those out.

Not impressed with these compressors.

When we got home, it was already an hour past nap time. So I tried getting her down for a nap quickly. Unfortunately our neighbor stopped by, delaying the process. I don't want to complain too much because our neighbor came over to discuss cutting down some trees that are technically on our property, but overhang onto theirs. She's willing to split the cost, which is beyond nice. So for $895 we are getting four trees cut down that we would have had to take care of anyway because they sit right where we want to put our future driveway and garage. 

At this point, Colleen was insane. So We let her burn off energy in her crib. When she doesn't want to nap she talks to herself and this talking almost always leads to her snoozing. So after 45 mins, she finally fell asleep.

This messed up our afternoon, but that was ok. We still managed to get to a place called Imajine That! It's not far from Justin's mom, so she met up with us.

I both loved and hated this place. I hated it because everyone raves about it, so I had high expectations. I was bummed that it wasn't as great as everyone made it seem. It was small, didn't have much for Colleen's age and just overall seemed kind of dirty. At one point she put a toy in her mouth and I wanted to puke because I get the feeling they don't wash the toys often.

I loved it because it was nice to have some family time and I absolutely love watching Colleen learn. She is such an observer and likes to watch everyone and everything for a bit before she feels comfortable. Seeing her play with different toys is also very cute because I feel like I can really see how her little brain works.

She was verrrry unsure of the place at first, so dada gave her lots of reassuring hugs and kisses.

Playing with a felt board. I think I may make/get her one for our house.

She ended up playing with these dolls a lot. I might try to get her these as well.

Her absolute favorite thing was this infant bouncer seat. We couldn't stop laughing. The place had a lot of toys and THIS is what she wanted to play with!

That night Justin fed Colleen and put her to bed whe I ran errands and got my mother-in-law a birthday gift. I hit up homegoods and found this:

 

A jumbo wine glass! I was soooo tempted to get it because Sue loves wine. I ended up getting her some nice planters and some garden accessories.

Sunday - I woke up at 6:30 and went grocery shopping. Seriously. I'm trying this new thing where I grocery shop once a month. I want to write a full post about it to create a better plan because Sunday was the first time I tried this and my grocery list was so long that I actually had to go back to the store a few hours later and finish! The good thing is that my house is now full of delicious & healthy food, we have no excuse not to cook, and now all I need to get each week is milk and fruit which should take 20 minutes. I think overall this will save a lot of time and hassle and I won't have to deal with wrangling a toddler while I try to decide between regular or whole wheat pasta!

Grocery shopping took up most of my day, so I didn't get much else done. 

That night we went out to dinner for Sue's birthday. We went to our favorite (and very kid friendly) restaurant - The Loft. It was just Sue, Justin, Colleen and me, but it was still a really nice time. 

Playing with Grammie's sunglasses.

Getting comfortable.

We got home and I pretty much passed out. It was a very busy and fun weekend!

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday goodness!

The past few days have been BUSY!

On Wednesday, my niece Laura came over to watch Colleen so I could get some stuff done. Even though they are technically cousins, Laura is more like an Aunt to her and I know they're going to have a good relationship. 

Here they are hanging out a gift Laura got Colleen for her birthday. After two months of it sitting in the box, we decided it was time to put it together. You really shouldn't rush these things. 

And here's Colleen showing off how she stands!

I was glad Laura was able to help because I got soooo much done! And my dining room chairs arrived, so it was nice to be able to take the time to get them unwrapped and set up. 

Here they are set up. I got them from Serenaandlily.com and am sooo happy with them. I had been looking for these exact chairs and was getting really discouraged because most were $400+. These were about $220 each, but I found a coupon code online and was able to get $270 off, which means I basically got one for free. They weren't cheap, but they're indoor/outdoor chairs and therefore very versatile. And seeing as most other ones I found were either sold out or $400, I'm really pleased with the deal I got.

On Thursday I took Colleen to the library story hour. 

She was super focused on the stories. This was the last one for a while, so I need to find another activity for her soon.

Thursday afternoon Grammie stopped by for lunch and to watch Colleen so I could get more done. I cleared out a lot of the boxes in our bedroom which was nice. We also had our handyman stop by and change the locks, clean the gutters and set up my rain barrel!

Beautiful! I ned to get a flat rock or some sort of platform to make it more even. But I'm looking forward to having a nice rainstorm soon so I can get the barrel filled!

Love this picture even though it's blurry. Colleen loves her Grammie!

Friday I woke up and was exhausted, but I pulled it together and got us out the door and up to NH to visit my mom.

Colleen and nana!

We headed to Concord and ran a bunch of errands. For not having a real nap or lunch, Colleen did really well.

Last night Justin, Colleen and I spent some time together on our deck and it was so nice! Love just hanging out as a family!

Hanging out in her chair.

Taking a ride on Dada's shoulders!

Overall it was a fun, although VERY busy, three days. And the iceing on the cake is that I did most of this with cabbage leaves in my bra. It sounds totally weird, but my milk was not drying up. By Thursday my breasts were very sore and I was starting to feel like I was developing mastitis. This was a trick a bunch of my mom friends suggested and it seems to have worked! I still feel a little full, but I'm not in as much pain. Hopefully I'll be all dried up in a few days!

Crazy Tuesday

Today started out with a lot of drama of the toddler kind. 

It started at 3:00am when Colleen decided to wake up. Usually I let her cry it out for 10-15 and see if she'll fall back asleep, but after 5 minutes I knew that wasn't going to happen. I think her very full diaper woke her. I have no idea how to fix this diaper issue. Last night we even put her in an overnight diaper my cousin gave us to try. It held, but I think Colleen just really hates the feeling of a wet and full diaper. Guess it's time to try something else!

I was exhausted when I woke up, but managed to get through breakfast and was cleaning up when I heard a terrible crash. Five seconds later came the loudest cry/wail from Colleen. We have this metal pole to open/close our skylights and the stupid thing fell and hit her on her head.

At first I thought it was just another boo-boo. But after 10 minutes I knew this was something more. She cried for an hour straight and when I finally got her to calm down all she wanted to do was cuddle into my neck. This is when I really started to worry because if you know our girl at all then you know she does not cuddle. Ever. We're lucky if we can get her to sit still for 5 seconds. So I called the doctor and they got her in right away.

She's ok. They think she may have a slight concussion, but I'm actually not that worried because after she took her nap she woke up like nothing happened and was back to her usual self. Still very scary and I will most definitely be keeping a close eye on her over the next few days! 

She felt better after eating some of her apple cinnamon sticks. 

Girl is obsessed with the bath! Here she is trying to climb in!

After lunch I decided getting out and about would be best, so we headed to Bed Bath & Beyond. I picked up a dust buster (finally!) and a sponge caddy for the sink. Colleen seemed to really enjoy herself and was so cute in the store. Every old lady stopped us and told me how cute she was. Colleen was good and smiled at everyone.

Justin was home fielding work calls when we got back. Poor guy is dealing with some crap at work. It's times like this I wish I could help with business stuff more, but then I remember that we'd probably kill each other. So instead we went for a family drive. Colleen fell asleep right away, which was good because the doctor said to let her get as much rest as possible.

The best part of the drive was when Justin and I started brain storming ideas for the addition and renovation we hope to complete on our house someday. We both seem to have similar ideas and are on the same page. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these kind of conversations with Justin. I love how the conversation flows easily and we both really listen to the each other. Justin can kind of be a quiet guy, so I always enjoy hearing his thoughts and ideas. 

We're so excited about our ideas, that we're even sketching out some possibilities. 

Here's Justin drawing out some of his ideas.

One significant thing about today: I did not breast feed Colleen for the first time ever. Every day for the past 400+ days I have breast fed. I'm officially done and I'm feeling a lot of emotions! I'm both excited and relieved to be done, but also really sad. She's relied on my body for 23 months now and I've loved nurturing her. I wanted to give up so many times, but always pushed through because I knew it was best for her. I know stopping is what's best now. I will always cherish all the moments we've had the past 14 months, especially the early days and the late nights. My girl is officially growing up and I can't believe it!

Terrible Friday, fun Saturday, busy Sunday & nice Monday.

This weekend was crazy busy! 

Friday was terrible. I woke up with a really intense migraine that would not go away. I think Colleen could sense something wasn't right with me, because she was (mostly) well behaved. Her tooth seems to be bothering her less and less, so she's starting to seem like her old self again. So she played with her toys quietly and really enjoyed watching tv. We don't have cable and the tv is rarely on during the day. So it was a real treat for her and it was pretty cute to see her sit so quietly during some of the shows.

Thankfully, Justin was home by 1:30pm. His schedule is always all over the place and that can be terrible, but also pretty fantastic. On Friday it was FANTASTIC!!

I still had a headache when I woke up Saturday, but I sucked it up and we headed to the beach house! It was a busy day because we had to bring up the crib we bought at Ikea a few weeks ago, wait for the new mattresses to be delivered and celebrate our cousin's 1st birthday! Little Alex actually turned 1 last week, but was in Florida so we had a mini get together to help celebrate.

We somehow managed to fit a huge Crib box & mattress in our car. Look at that cutie in the mirror!

Colleen and Alex up to no good.

Opening gifts. The house was full of chaos with 5 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs but I loved it so much!

Not a bad view for the day!

It was a fun and tiring day! The minute after we got in the car, Colleen fell asleep.  We got home and had dinner and just relaxed.

Still had a headache on Sunday, but it went away quickly once I got up and had coffee.

I've been feeling kind of crummy about my body lately so I decided to stop feeling bad for myself and do something about it and go to the gym. I had an incredible workout and felt so good afterwards! I really need to start going more often. 

After the gym, I fed Colleen lunch and got us ready to go out while Justin mowed the yard. Colleen is growing quickly and was in need of clothes, so while Justin did yard work, C and I headed to the outlets in Maine.

Carter's and Osh Kosh were having a huge sale and even had 20% off sale items. I always do well when they have these sales and scored $531 worth of clothes for only $147! I purposely bought bigger sizes so Colleen could grown into them and we could get more bang for our buck.

Our bounty with a funny girl. 

In Osh Kosh. Colleen usually hates hats, but loved this one! Too bad they didn't have one in her size!

We got home and Justin was working on installing the cat door to the basement. Colleen loved watching him work.

Making sure Dada does a good job.

The most exciting moment of the day was when Colleen decided to stand up on her own. When she saw how excited we got, she kept standing up and smiling like she was so proud of herself. I was sooooo proud of her! I also feel relieved that she's showing some progress with standing/walking on her own.

A sneaky photo I took of her standing! She's so cute!

We ended our Sunday by discovering that our strawberry plant had some strawberries turning red.

I didn't have much hope for this plant, but maybe we'll get a few tasty strawberries from it after all!

This morning we woke up exhausted, head-achy, back-achy and overall just feeling yucky. But I didn't want to waste what was forecasted to be a beautiful day. So we somehow got it together.

Justin stretched his back while Colleen practiced standing.

Then Colleen did some yoga. Here's her downward dog.

At the beach house we met up with family and Colleen and her cousin got to hang out again. 

Trying to break free!

Not a bad place to eat lunch!

After lunch, we let the babies get dirty in the sand. They had a lot of fun and I loved watching them play.

I couldn't get a good shot of Colleen's face ( she was concentrating really hard), but here's a cute one of our cousin Jen (Alex's mom) with the two kids.

It was a little too cold for bathing suits, so we just let them dirty up their clothes and hosed them down afterward.

Here they are pushing the stroller around while not wearing any clothes!

And then Colleen decided to sit in the dirty bucket everyone rinses their feet in. 

Overall it was a great day! I love making memories and am so thankful Colleen will have so many good ones!

A much better Thursday

Today was about 1,000 times better than yesterday and I think it had a lot to do with Colleen's tooth popping through a bit and me keeping a positive attitude.

I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, so I was really exhausted and worried about how the day would go when I woke up. But I got us up, dressed and out the door by 9:30am. 

We went to story time at the library in our old town. I used to bring Colleen every week, but with moving and the chaos of life we hadn't been in several months. 

We had such a good time! I forgot how much Colleen loved it and it was really great to see her actually participate (she used to just sit there). It was also nice to see her interact with kids her own age. The problem with being a stay at home mom is that she doesn't get the regular interaction with her peers that a daycare would provide. So I was really happy to see her share toys with another little girl and very relieved that she didn't bite or pinch any of them. I really need to get us involved with more programs like this. I think she would benefit from it a lot.

It was also a really nice morning for me as two women that I knew from the Breastfeeding group were there. I forgot how nice it was to talk to moms who are going through the same thing as me. I really miss the breast feeding group and the regular adult interaction it provided.

Here are a few photos from the library group:

Mesmerized by Ms. Claire, the librarian. It was funny to see how she blossomed after being there for 10 mins. She was very shy at first, but once she relaxed she was miss social!

Selfie.

The rest of the day went by very quickly! We got home around 11:00 and Colleen was starting to lose it. Naptime is usually at 10:00, so she was exhausted. She napped from 11:00-12:45. During this time I ate lunch and had a nice phone call with my sister, Lorraine.

I was worried that the day was going to go downhill when Colleen woke up because she was very fussy. She wet through her diaper and I think that made her feel yucky. This keeps happening and I need to figure something out. Do they make super absorbency diapers? Should I double up? Should I put a swim diaper on her? 

Lunch helped her relax. Then we waited around for a home inspector for our house insurance. Thankfully he was early and the whole process was very quick. So I got Colleen ready and we headed out into the rain to go grocery shopping. 

Here she is admiring some fruit.

I had a lot of people stop and compliment her coat. That was a $50 coat that I got for $15! Money well spent because she wears it all the time.

The rest of the afternoon was low key and fairly relaxing. Colleen and I just played together while we waited for dada to get home.

Love her face!

For dinner I made beef florentine. I wish I could say I made it from scratch, but the grocery store had them all made so all I had to do was pop it into the oven. 

Beef florentine, rice pilaf and a salad.

Justin LOVED this meal. And it was super easy. We have a take-out addiction, so I'm always looking for meals that are easy, healthy and will make us think twice before we order that next pizza!

Horrible Wednesday

My day started at 4:00am thanks to a crying baby. I feel horrible for Colleen. One of her bottom molars is coming in and it's obviously causing her a lot of pain. It's so bad that I caved and gave her Motrin twice today. A while ago I read an article about how parents 'over medicate' their children with Tylenol, Motrin, etc. It was very eye opening and I now try really hard to only give her medecine when necessary. Today it was necessary!

The day was pretty unproductive. I spent the day trying to keep Colleen as happy as possible, but she was really out of sorts. She was trying to bite everything and no teether or toy worked. She only took an hour nap which added to the crazy. I tried my best, but today was challenging. I was so close to losing it many times, but am so thankful that I was able to keep it together (even if it was just barely)! 

A few highlights from today:

She REALLY likes to sit in baskets. It's kind of weird, but mostly just really cute. 

Trying to climb up the couch and cracking up. She may not walk yet, but she's a very skilled couch climber.

We went for two drives today. Colleen fell asleep for about 30 minutes during the 2nd trip out, so I drove to Plum Island. The views out there are gorgeous! 

When dada got home, I wanted to cry from relief. He took over feeding her dinner and I showered and relaxed by myself for about 20 minutes. It was exactly I what I needed and I was actually able to enjoy the rest of the night with Colleen. 

Funny girl playing 'peekaboo' during bath time with a clear shower curtain. We didn't have the heart to tell her we could still see her.

Now I'm watching the Survivor Finale (why is it 2 HOURS long? Who has time for that?) and am trying to relax. Colleen's molar broke through a bit today, but I'm not sure it's given her much relief so I'm expecting another difficult day tomorrow!

Even in the most difficult moments, I still love Colleen endlessly and feel so lucky to have her!

Bite me Tuesday

From the moment I woke up today, I started counting down the minutes until bedtime. Terrible, I know. I hate days like this, but I'm really proud that I didn't let it drag me down too much and I still got stuff done.

I had a 5:30am wake up call thanks to a freakin' bird. I almost killed it. I seriously laid it bed thinking of ways I could murder it without having to move from my comfy bed too much. 

Colleen woke up at 6:00 and we said our goodbyes to Grampy who flew back to Florida today. It was a nice week and he was a BIG help. I'm going to miss being able to make quick trips to the store without a toddler. 

Colleen has a bottom molar coming in so she was C-R-A-Z-Y today. I knew I had to keep us busy as much as possible so after breakfast, I went for a walk.

So glad I did as it was another beautiful morning!

Normally Colleen loves our walks, but she was so restless. So I did our usual route and then got her home and down for a nap.

The afternoon proved to be just as fun as the morning, so after lunch I got us ready and headed out. 

She did manage a few smiles today. Here  she is cracking up at sonething. I love this photo, mostly because of the way she's holding her bunny. This is quickly becoming one of her favorite things. It might even be considered her comfort toy.

We went to Target and then Homegoods. Colleen has a short patience limit in stores. She doesn't like sitting in the front part and would rather crawl/walk around than be strapped in. I have a few techniques I use to keep her busy, but none seemed to work today. So this is how I made it through Homegoods:

I hunched down, she stood and held onto my shoulders. Yes, we went through the entire store like this! I know we must have been quite the sight because several people laughed/smiled when they saw us. When our standing technique didn't work any longer, I found a safe & clean spot for her to crawl around. 

This thing was actually pretty cool and if I had a bigger deck, I would have totally wanted it. But at $1500, I was perfectly happy to just let it act as a temporary play pen for my girl.

I did buy some nice things totaling about $80. I always feel guilty and get buyers remorse because I hate spending money, but we needed some household things.

Here are a few of the things I got:

Some placemats & green vase (which I'm sure will travel around the house)

These super cute note cards. I think having these on hand is always a good idea. I actually have some thank you notes I need to send to two of our new neighbors, so these will be put to use right away.

I also got a gift for our cousin who turned 1 this week and a few kitchen items.

And I picked up these pillows from Target. They were $30 total, but worth it.  I LOVE how our back deck is shaping up. It's starting to feel really cozy. 

I wish the rest of our day was more low key, but we got home and Colleen was still in maniac mode. I fed her dinner and tried to play some games with her. But all she wanted to do was climb up the couch. 

Here she is in action. She just learned how to do this and now it's all she wants to do. There will be no rest for mama the next few days. 

The day ended with a nice big bite on my upper arm from Colleen. I feel bad because I know she's teething. But she bites a lot and I'm starting to get concerned that she'll bite another kid or cat or something. 

Justin got home around 5:30pm, so he helped me get her to bed. Now I'm just relaxing and watching tv.

Here's to hoping that tooth pops through and Colleen gets a little relief from teething!