M.I.A.

I have been MIA for awhile.  The end of baseball season is always challenging for me.  By the last 2 weeks of the season, I am ready to have an extra hand during the dinner/bath/bedtime shift and am too exhausted to sit down to blog or sort through pictures.  We are in the home stretch here though which is great news!

What's been going on?

We had the annual daycare party.  Usually this is held around the holidays, but things were a little busy for everyone, so they had it in April.  The best part of the party was winning a free week of daycare - woohoo!!!



My guess is Paige is going to take her first steps within the next 3 weeks.  I can't catch a picture of her standing on her own, but everyday she is getting more and more steady.  Just today she was standing holding on to a window, but was eyeing a chair not that far away.  You seriously could see the wheels turning in her head thinking about how she can get to that chair without crawling.  She reached her arm out as far it could go and took one tiny step, but then resorted to crawling.  It won't be long though!

 



We celebrated Aunt Emmy's last few weeks as a bachelorette!





And then we showered her with gifts the next day!

 

 We celebrated my 30th birthday with multiple cakes!





I enjoyed a birthday lunch with my Mom, Stacey, and Miss Fiona.



And received some beautiful flowers from my mom too!

 

We took a 35 minute walk around the block - yes, just around ONE block!  Luke rode his bike and he had to keep "filling up the gas" or his "front tire would blow out of air".



 



Someone really enjoyed some pasta!

 

 Wally and I spent the night in Lake Geneva celebrating the wedding of Tom & Shay Cooper!

 

 It is always fun to see (and dance with) these ladies!

  

And enjoy some alone time with this guy!

 

While we were at the wedding, Luke went fishing with Papa and caught 2 fish (his first!). Thank goodness for cell phone cameras!

 

 

And then we said goodbye to Lake Geneva and headed to IL to spend Mother's Day with my little loves!  (separate post to come on that)



And today I took Paige to the doctor to have a rash looked at that she has on her back and belly.  It started as just a small patch on her lower back that I thought was dry skin and over the weekend it spread.  The doctor said it is pityriasis rosea - a rash from a virus.  It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, but it is taking over her belly and back and looks to be making its way down her arm too.  Unfortunately, there is no treatment.  It will go away on it's own, but it could take up to 4-6 weeks.  Such a crazy thing since she has not been sick at all.  In other news though, she weighed in at 23 lbs.- up one pound from her 9-month appointment!

That about sums up the past few weeks!

Punky, Smiley, and Crabby Thursdays

Well the dreaded week arrived - Lucas started daycare on Monday! I was a mess, Lucas was a champ. There were lots of tears from me on Monday - both Wally and my mom can attest to that. I dropped Lucas off at Punky's (our sitter) about 7 and told them I would be calling and coming by on my lunch. Of course the morning report was good, then I went there about 12:15 and he was sleeping (boo!), but I was glad that he was napping there - I was afraid he wouldn't. I called in the afternoon and Lucas was, of course, still doing wonderfully. He ate, napped, pooped, played, tummy time, went into the other room for storytime with the toddlers and was just taking it all in (remember he is a people watcher). He seems to be doing great and I am very happy with Punky and the other teachers there. Lucas does get some "me" time with the teacher's too because on some days he is the only infant and the toddlers are napping so it is just him and Jamie or Punky usually. They hold him and really interact with him all day long! It didn't get any easier to drop him off every morning this week, but I knew that he was in good hands. He is a full, happy baby when we get home around 4:30. We play for a bit, he tells me about his day (he is "talking" so much!), and then he needs a little catnap (about 30 minutes). Bathtime begins about 7/7:30, bottle, book, and bedtime...that is our routine now. So far so good!

On Wednesday when I called in the afternoon to check on Lucas, Jamie told me that they call him "Smiley" because he is just so happy all the time! As I have told several people, that makes me so happy to know he is happy, but it breaks my heart at the same time knowing that they get to see his smiles all day long and I don't (I get my fair share at home at night though)!

Lucas wasn't a happy camper on Thursday morning when he had to get strapped in to his carseat for the ride to Punky's. He cried just about the whole way there (not a full out cry, but very whiny!). I tried talking to him, giving him his paci, singing to him - he wasn't up for any of it. So we get to the sitter's, and Jamie is there to greet us. She said "How is Smiley today?". I told her that he wasn't very happy and as I pull the blanket from over him, his eyes are all red and watery, but he wasn't crying anymore so that made me feel better about leaving (I couldn't leave if he was crying). When I called in the afternoon, Punky told me that she heard Lucas downstairs (her and her family basically "live" upstairs in her house as the whole downstairs is set-up as the daycare) crying in the morning (shortly after I left) so she went down there and told him that he can't be crabby for mommy in the morning. She told me that Lucas must have gotten the notice on Crabby Thursdays. Apparently, all the kids are crabby on Thursdays. She said there is always a lot of tattle tailing, "he/she looked at me funny", whining, etc. She doesn't know why, but that is how Thursdays go. So Lucas had his crabby day yesterday with everyone else too. I think next Thursday he will wear his Shed t-shirt ("Sometimes Crabby, Always Cute")

So we made it through week 1 (well almost, Friday is about half over). It's not easy, but Lucas and I will be ok - or should I say, I will be ok!

Update on pictures - I have lots to upload, but we are now having laptop issues at home (I think we have a virus), and we are still using my parent's camera since ours broke, and for some reason I am not able to upload the pictures to our desktop computer at home. Hopefully I will find a solution this weekend.