Week In My Life - Tuesday

6:06 AM - I woke up with an upset stomach, but wasn't nearly ready to get up for the day.  Drew arrived home around 6:30ish, and came to bed shortly after.  We chatted for a few minutes, and I eventually drifted back off to sleep.

8:33 AM - I woke up again and decided to get up and start getting ready.  I had already declared today a lazy day since we didn't have anything to go and do, and it was supposed to snow.  I got in the shower, got dressed, then came into the office to finish up Monday's WIML post.  After I published that, I scrolled through social media.

9:30 AM - I decided to wake Annelise up because if I let her sleep any longer we would have problems with nap time, and then subsequently bed time.  I took her out to the kitchen for breakfast.  Today, she had blueberry yogurt again and a blueberry muffin.  I unloaded the dishwasher and put the pans away.

10:07 AM - I've finished cleaning up breakfast and I took Annelise back to her room to change her diaper.  I decided to leave her in her pajamas for the day.  I rarely do that, but, like I said, I've already declared today lazy day.

10:16 AM - I loaded Annelise into the car, and we went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the fact that she doesn't have any shoes on!

10:40 AM - We're back at home and we spend the rest of morning playing together and watching tv.  Well, it's really just me watching tv.  Annelise played with a bunch of toys.  She was in an awesome mood and wasn't cranky at all.  At about noon, I asked her if she wanted to go night-night and she said yes.  So, I put her in her room.  When I walked back out to the living room, I noticed that it was snowing.  It wasn't much, and didn't really stick, but it was still falling.  Ack!

12:15 PM - I remembered that there was an Apple keynote and turned on the computer to watch it.

Leo kept me company.  I watched that until about 1:20.  I was feeling tired and kind of crappy, so I turned off the computer and went back out to living room to lay down.

Drew woke up around 3:15 and started getting ready for work.  He put a pizza in the oven to eat before going to work.  I opened Annelise's bedroom door and tried to wake her up around 4:30.  She didn't even budge.  I left her door open and just figured that she'd wake up soon.  Drew went in there around 4:40 to try to wake her up, but she wasn't budging for him either!  He eventually got her up and brought her out to the living.  She looked at me with pissed off eyes because she was not ready to be up yet.  She perked up once Drew put her in her high chair and gave her some pizza.

5:10 PM - Drew left for work and I cut up two kiwis for myself and Annelise.  I only made it through 3/4 of it because it tasted somewhat like grass.  Gross!  Annelise played in the living room and managed to make a huge mess while Rachel did some studying.

7:20 PM - Annelise made a huge mess in her diaper, so I took her back to her room to change her.  I figured I would just give her a bath then.  She loves bath time!

I think she looks like a boy in this picture.  She'll get more hair eventually.  I let her play in the tub for about half an hour.  I took her out, lotioned her up, and put her in some new pajamas.  I made some macaroni and cheese for her and fed that to her.  I figured it would be less mess if I did it that way.

8:45 PM - I tell Annelise that it's time to go night-night, and off to bed she goes.  She finally falls asleep at about 9:45.

Rachel kept saying how hungry she was, and that she really wanted Burger King, so she went and picked up something for both of us to eat.  Once I had finished eating, I went and got ready for bed.  I watched a little tv, scrolled through my phone, and finally turned everything off at about 11:30 to go to sleep.

Week In My Life - Monday

I follow a blog called Adventuroo, and every year Melissa does a Week In The Life series.  I thought that I would join in this year and document a week in my life.  Sounds fun, right?  Here we go!

6:38 AM - Drew arrives home after working all night and it woke me up.  I had to pee (of course), so I got up to do that.  Once I got back to bed, I tried to go back to sleep.  It wasn't happening.

7:30 AM - I decided to give up trying to go back to sleep.  I grabbed my glasses from the side of the bed, and my phone, and decided to lay in bed and check my email and social media.

Blah!!!  So cold today!  I am so not a fan of all this cold and winter crap.  I checked my email first, then Instagram, then Twitter, then Facebook.  I was almost done checking Facebook when I hear Annelise make her first squawk from her room.  I glanced over to the monitor and see that she is starting to move around.  That's my cue to get up and get into the shower.

8:03 AM - Started my morning routine and then got into the shower.  Once I was done in the shower, I went and got Annelise out of bed.

Good morning sunshine!!  She has this habit of tucking the handle of her paci underneath her nose.  So strange.  She's in a happy, cheery mood, as she usually is every morning.  We went out to the kitchen to start getting breakfast.

8:33 AM - She's entered into this phase where it's a fight to get her to sit in her high chair.  Once she's in there, she's fine, but getting her there can be a struggle sometimes.  I started the dishwasher since I forgot to do that last night.  I finally wrangled Annelise into her high chair and got her breakfast.  Today was blueberry yogurt and some pineapple.

Once she had some food in front of her, I started to get myself a bowl of cereal.

Frosted Flakes today!  And, of course, the minute that Annelise saw what I was having, she wanted it too.  So, I made her a small bowl of cereal.  I quickly finished my breakfast and putzed around the kitchen while I wanted for her to finish.

9:02 AM - Annelise has finally finished eating and I have cleaned up the kitchen.  We go back to the bedrooms to start getting dressed.  I turned Pandora on the computer.  Annelise loves dancing to the music and usually asks for it anytime she's back in the office.  I started to get dressed and do my hair and makeup.  I'm pretty sure I had to stop over a dozen times to tell Annelise to get out of something that she shouldn't be in.  I finally finished getting ready at about 9:45 and then moved on to changing Annelise's diaper and getting her dressed.  It's usually a fight to do this, but today wasn't too awful.  I think the promise of shopping might have helped that.

Rachel went to put Annelise in her car seat while I packed up the diaper bag.  I still make sure that I bring a snack cup and water cup anytime we leave the house.

10:04 AM - Leave the house to run our errands.  First stop was my doctor's office to drop off some paperwork.  I ran into a friend of mine, and her daughter, while I was there.  We chatted for a few minutes and then I was on my way.  Then, we went to Target.

We arrived at Target at about 10:30.  We went straight back to the children's section.  I wanted to get Annelise a fleecy type jacket to wear while we're still in this in between of weather.  It's cold enough for a jacket, but not so frigid that she needs a super heavy one.  Plus, she can't wear a super heavy one in her car seat anyways.  I'm ok with a fleecy one because I can still get the straps nice and tight.  I found what I was looking for right away.  Then, I picked out some snow pants and a heavy winter coat.  The pants are solid purple, and the heavy coat is a purple plaid.  The fleecy jacket was also purple.  I guess it was a purple sort of day.  After that, we walked over to the socks and I picked out two new packages for her.  I wanted to get a full length mirror since we don't have one.  I found a super cheap one ($6) and stuck it in the cart.  Then, Rachel wanted to get a couple of shirts, so we walked over to the women's clothes.  She found a bunch and went to try them on.  I saw a dress that I absolutely loved and really wanted to get to wear out for our anniversary this weekend, but unfortunately, they didn't have my size.  When I got back to the fitting room, I saw that they had one in my size!  I thought about trying it on, but ultimately decided not to.  Rachel decided on three of the shirts and we made our way to the checkout.

11:25 AM - We left Target and drove over to Olive Garden to have lunch.  We were seated right away.  Rachel and I both ordered soup, salad, and breadsticks.  I had the chicken and gnocchi soup, and Rachel had the zoupa toscana.

Annelise ate some breadstick and tomato.  She was so well behaved during lunch.  We ordered the raspberry cheesecake for dessert.  You know Annelise liked that!

We paid for lunch and then came home.  Annelise was a little hyper when we got home and ran around the living room for a few minutes.  Then, she did this.

18 months old and she still loves her jumperoo.  I told her she had just a few minutes and she bounced like crazy.

1:06 PM - I took Annelise into her room to change her diaper and put her down for a nap.  After that, I came into the office to do some work.

There were papers everywhere on my desk.  I just couldn't stand all the clutter and since I had just paid bills the other day, it was time to file them all away.

1:25 PM - I had to go into Annelise's room and scooch her crib a little because she had turned on the light switch.

1:41 PM - Finally asleep.  I checked Facebook and my email.

1:52 PM - Started filing all of the paperwork.  I didn't take me long, it's just tedious.  I really need to clean out the folders, but that will wait until after the first of the year.

Much better!!  Still not perfect, but definitely an improvement.

2:14 PM - I'm over working in my office, and feeling a little sleepy, and cold, so I went out to the living room to watch some tv and snuggle under the blanket.  I watched the end of an episode of Home Improvement.  Then, I switched to Let's Make A Deal at about 2:30.  No joke, I got up at least a half a dozen times to either let the dog in or out or let a cat in or out of the bedroom since Drew sleeps with the door closed.  So, a nap wasn't happening.  I watched The Ellen Degeneres Show at 3:00.  Drew got up around 3:15 and made himself some lunch.  He then went and got showered and ready for work.  He came back into the living room at about 4:15.  After he put his shoes on, he went into the dining room to fill out the new patient paperwork for a new PCP that we're going to be going to.

4:37 PM - I woke Annelise up from her nap.  She's worked herself into a new schedule where she goes to bed super late at night, sleeps in later in the mornings, therefore naps much later in the day than she used to.  I'm still trying to decide if I like it.  We just hang around the kitchen while Drew gets ready and then leaves for work.

5:17 PM - I made a hodgepodge dinner for Annelise until I figured out what our actual dinner was going to be.

She's eating her leftover yogurt from breakfast, some string cheese, and some blueberries.  She asked for all of it.  Rachel and I decided to make tuna fish sandwiches for dinner.

I cleaned up Annelise while Rachel made the tuna fish.  I made my sandwich and then went into the living room to eat.  Annelise had a little bit of the leftover tuna.  After I got done eating, we all just hung out, watched tv, and played.  We love watching Wheel of Fortune, so we watched that.  Annelise and Maya started playing together, and Annelise was cracking up.

7:14 PM - I thought I smelled something a little suspicious, so I took Annelise back to her room to change her diaper.  Turns out it was a false alarm, but I still changed her anyway.  I decided to just leave her jeans off.  We came back out to the living room and started playing on the couch.  I kept tickling her and she kept trying to climb onto the back of the couch cushions and cracking up when I wouldn't let her.  We had a blast.  Nothing beats the sound of her giggles.  I love making her giggle.

Rachel was supposed to be studying, but she usually spends a good chunk of that time on her phone.  She actually studied a bunch, or as much as a toddler will let her.  I know that Rachel usually counts down the minutes until Annelise goes to bed.

Annelise played in the living for the evening.  She usually makes a huge mess, but that's ok.

8:56 PM - I turned the tv and told Annelise it's time to go night-night.  She got up and walked back to her room to get changed.  She insisted on brushing her teeth first, so I let her do that.  After she brushed her teeth, I changed her diaper and put her pajamas on.  She looked through a book while I was doing that.  I gave her a paci and put her in her crib.

9:07 PM - I came into the office and got on the computer.  I checked Facebook and chatted with a friend about a wedding that I'm second shooting on Saturday.  I started to import all of today's pictures for this post and then started typing it up.

10:25 PM - Annelise has finally quieted down and fallen asleep.

10:35 PM - I stopped working on this post for the evening and went out to the living room to watch some tv before heading to bed.  I decided I was hungry again and tater tots really sounded good.  So, I put some in the toaster oven for Rachel and myself.  Then, I had to wait 25 minutes for them to cook.  It was already past my bedtime and I wasn't helping things.  The tater tots finally finished and I scarfed them down and then went and got ready for bed.

11:46 PM - Finally crawled into bed.  I scrolled through my phone a little bit while watching some Full House.  I finally turned everything off at 12:12 AM and fell asleep pretty quickly.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Drew, Annelise, and I went to the Pumpkin Patch this afternoon!  It was a gorgeous fall day, and we knew we had to take advantage of what will probably be one of the last ones.  Annelise had a great time running around, and I really loved making the memories.  Doing the fall activities, like the apple orchard and pumpkin patch, is something that I always dreamed about doing with my kids.

Annelise loved being able to pet the goats.  We didn't have any change on us to get the pellet food, so Annelise made due with feeding them some leaves from the ground.

After we took our obligatory family pictures with the pumpkin, we grabbed something to eat.  After that, we took Annelise on her very first pony ride!  She had a blast!

See how excited she was!  She was not very happy about having to get off, and immediately started signing "more".  She quickly calmed down though when we told her we were going to look at some other things and that we'd be taking a wagon ride.

We walked around a little bit to check out what was left to see, and then we made our way over to where the wagon picks you up to go pick your own pumpkin.  We found three great pumpkins and, once we took the wagon ride back, put them in a wagon to go pay for them.  Annelise insisted on riding with them.

That girl absolutely loves to ride in the wagon.  I love days like today when we can make so many fun memories as a family.  I know that Annelise won't remember them, but she'll have pictures to look back at.

Eighteen Months

Dear Annelise,

How is it that another six months have flown by since your first birthday and you are now a year and a half old?!?  There are some days where each day feels about a week long and I count down the seconds until it is time for you to go to bed.  Then, there are days that fly by faster than my eyes can blink and I can't believe that I'm already getting you ready for bed again.  I am so amazed at the growing and learning that you have done in these past six months.

Whenever anyone asks about you, I always say that you are a toddler in every sense of the word.  You are sweet, lovable, smart, rambunctious, busy, so many words that it's hard to write them all down.  You also are a challenge some days.  I know that some of our disagreements are because you can't fully communicate to me yet.  Some are just because you want your own way and don't want to listen to what Mommy or Daddy has to say.

I love that I (or Daddy) can ask you for a kiss or a hug and you always turn to give me one.  You are so sweet and affectionate and it warms my heart.  You are also starting to warm up and give those hugs and kisses away willingly to other people too.  Auntie, Nana, GG, and Grandma usually get some love without too much coaxing.  You have started to warm up around others quicker.  You still tuck into me at first, but it doesn't take long for you to come out of your shell and interact with people.

You communicate to us primary through signing.  You know and consistently use "eat", "more", "water", "milk", "please", and "help".  I'm amazed at how quickly you pick up new signs when I teach them to you.  Verbally, you say "mama", "daddy", "bye-bye", and "up".  You say "kkkkki" for kitty.  You understand so much that I say to you, you just can't communicate it yet.  You know all about the animals, and many of their sounds, you just have a hard time mimicking those sounds.  However, you definitely have the growl down!  You growl almost more than any other noise.  It's adorable!  I know that you're trying to talk.  In the past month or two, you have really started to babble a lot.  You look at me and start this string of unrecognizable sounds and noises and I just go along with it and try to have a conversation with you.  You're trying to tell me something.  Eventually it'll be in English!  Ha!

You also know many body parts.  You can point out your head, hair, eyes, nose, ear, tongue, teeth, belly button, knees, and toes.  Some days you very willingly point them out, and other days you ignore me completely when I ask you.  Ahhhh toddlerhood!

You have sprouted all four of your first molars.  You ran a slight fever, but nothing too terrible.  You still just have the very middle bottom teeth; still haven't cut the lateral incisors.  So weird!

I can't believe how much you LOVE to dance!  You are constantly moving, constantly running, constantly on the go.  You will sway side to side, move your hips, wave your arms, turn in circles, and stomp your feet.  Everybody loves to watch you dance.  I hope that you continue loving to dance!

You have discovered that you can climb on top of your activity table and it will make you taller so that you can see things.  I would say that this is your new favorite activity.  You are constantly hauling that table around to different parts of the house so that you can use it to climb up and see things or get into things that you shouldn't.  It's safe to say that not much is safe from you anymore!  Most of the time you will leave things alone when I tell you.  However, you love to run into the bathroom and get into my drawer and pull all of my stuff out.  If I catch you, you flop onto your belly and start giggling.  It's kind of hard to be mad at you when you do that!

We are still going to Kindermusik classes and you absolutely love going.  This time, all the kids are right around your age, which I think you enjoy more.  I'm also happy that you've started to interact a lot more in class.  You run to grab the instruments and you will actually dance and move around now.  Sometimes, you'll even participate without me having to carry you.

We have had a sad milestone recently.  We stopped breastfeeding.  We went a little over 17 months.  I am seriously so happy, blessed, honored, humbled, and overjoyed that we were able to go so long and not have any issues.  I'm so proud of us!  At the time when we stopped, you were only nursing in the mornings, and it wasn't for very long at all.  Once I decided to stop, you still asked for it, but you were okay with not nursing as long as you were fed breakfast right away.  You only really cried once, but once I sat you down for breakfast, you forgot all about it.

Some friends of Mommy and Daddy's had a baby at the end of August and they came over to get her pictures done.  You absolutely loved that baby and insisted on holding her and being right next to her the whole time.  A couple of weeks later, we went to their house to drop off the pictures and hang out and you, again, loved being around the baby.  The baby wasn't so crazy about you, but her crying didn't seem to phase you.  You just wanted to hold her.  You cried once I took her away so that she could be comforted and stop crying.  I loved that you wanted to hold the baby and love on her.  I think that you'll be a great big sister.  You also didn't seem to mind when I had the baby.  Now, of course, I'm anxious to give you a sibling.  I know that that will come in time.  But, I think that you'll be a great big sister when the time comes.

You have started to express an interest in the potty.  You want to sit on the toilet, and you say "pee pee", but I don't know if you actually connect the two yet.  I let you sit on the toilet, but nothing has happened yet.  I'm not really expecting it to.  But, I am excited that you have started to express an interest.

You are 25 lbs 3 oz, and 32.5 inches tall.  You wore 18 month clothes this summer and will be wearing 24 month this fall/winter.  You wear a size 4 diaper.

Little lady, sometimes I can't believe how much love I have for you.   I always struggle with wanting you to grow up faster and slow down growing up.  I love looking forward to each with you and you always surprise me with something new.  I love you so much!

Love forever,
Mommy

Fabulous Fall Day

Drew and I took Annelise to Edward's Apple Orchard today.  The weather was absolutely amazing today!  Beautifully sunny and in the upper 70s!  You can't get much better than that.

When we first arrived, we let Annelise see some of the animals and run around the playground for a little bit. 

I tried to have her stand by height measuring photo board, but she was NOT having it!

That's about as good as we could get.  She really just wanted to run around. 

We went for a horse drawn wagon ride around the orchard.  Annelise really loved seeing the horses and she was even allowed to pet them afterwards!

Of course, no trip to the orchard is complete without buying some apple cider doughnuts and apples!  We stocked ourselves up and said farewell to the orchard.  I have a feeling that we'll make another trip back before the end of the season. 

Ready To Go

A few weeks ago, I called my RE's office because I had a couple of questions about the blood work that I needed to have done.  I found out that my doctor was leaving and going to teach at a college and that a new doctor was taking over the practice.  This new doctor was already seeing patients.  I never would have known this had it not been for my call!  (Would anybody else have been a little irritated about that?)  During my conversation with the nurse, I found out that he (sometimes) has a different protocol for the way he does things.  This worried me some because I had already set up a plan of action with my old RE, and I was concerned that there would be things added or not needed.  So, I scheduled a consultation with this new doctor so that we could meet him and go over the course of action for my treatment.

Drew and I went and met with Dr. D a few weeks ago.  He's such a nice guy.  He seems very intelligent, down to earth, and he's been through IVF himself.  Most importantly, he didn't want to screw around with what worked last time for us to have a healthy pregnancy and baby.  Great news!

Dr. D did inform me that I would have to update my blood work and that it was mandated by the government for the lab that we use.  Ok, fine, even though I was about 99.9% positive that I didn't have any STDs, I went and got the blood work done.  I don't have any STDs, but I did find out that I'm anemic.  Lovely.  A week after that, I had an ultrasound done to check my uterus and ovaries.  Ute looked good, but ovaries had some cysts.  He said that they looked exactly like endometriomas, which he would expect because of my endometriosis.  He said that since he was fairly confident that was what they would, he wouldn't have any problem moving forward with a FET whenever we were ready.  He said that if I was concerned about the cysts, that he could do some testing and surgery to remove them.  I basically said, "No thanks!" and we moved on.

So, everything is all set to go for a Frozen Embryo Transfer whenever we decide to go ahead with it.  Drew and I are still trying to discuss when the best time would be.  We keep tossing around different dates and scenarios and trying to pick the best one.

I'm feeling very lonely this time around.  I feel like I had more of a support system the last time we cycled.  I know that a lot of it has to do with the fact that we aren't even really telling people that we're cycling again, but even the people that do know seem a little distant.

I'm terrified going into this.  I'm so worried about something going wrong.  We only have two snowbabies and if something goes wrong, we're out of luck.  Drew and I have already decided that we probably won't ever do a fresh IVF cycle again.  There is so much riding on the thaw and transfer.  I'm scared of the embryo not surviving the thaw, or not implanting.  I'm scared of miscarrying again.  It's been a long time since my body did the pregnancy thing.  What if it screws it up again?  I know that I really need to calm down and relax, but that is so hard to do.

Fall Fest Parade

The weekend after Labor Day is when Roscoe puts on the annual Fall Festival.  It usually runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with a parade Sunday morning.  I went many years when I was younger, and I was so excited to take Annelise this year.

Drew and I drove up there Friday night to walk around some, and so that Annelise could ride some rides.  She absolutely LOVES riding rides.  I usually start by taking her down the big slide, and then move to some of the other rides.  I think her favorite is the dragon roller coaster.  As soon as she sees it, she starts signing "more" and wants to run over to it.  While she's on the ride, she never once cracks a smile, or acts like she enjoys it.  She just sits there all content, enjoying the ride.  As soon as the ride stops, she hops up to get off, but then immediately starts signing "more" to go again.

Today, Rachel and I took Annelise to the parade in the morning.  I was excited to take her because I thought she would really enjoy seeing the bands and the local dance teams and cheerleaders.  She did enjoy it, but she also enjoyed collecting the candy that is thrown out.

It took her a little bit to get the hang of picking the candy up and putting it in the bag, but once she did, she was all over it.  She would run and pick up the candy, then toddle over to put it in the bag, then run back to me for me to pick her up.  When some more people came along and threw candy out, she would wiggle to get down, run grab the candy, and repeat the whole process.  And those Dum Dum suckers?  She absolutely loves them!

We're trying to entertain ourselves while waiting for the parade to start.

I went through her bag of stuff tonight and found a temporary tattoo and thought I'd put it on her.  Her mind is always blown whenever she gets a hand stamp at Kindermusik, so I knew she'd be amazed at the tattoo.

She just kept staring at it, and touching it.  It was so funny!

Photo Share

I recently upgraded my camera, so I've been snapping away more than usual.  My sister and I took Annelise outside to play this evening, and I practiced on my new camera while she ran around.

Why aren't there any adorable photos like this of me and my child?  Oh right, because I'm always behind the camera!  It warms my heart that I can capture moments like this though.

Annelise was having quite the conversation with Rachel.  Her face cracks me up!

Her new favorite activity is to use her activity table as a step stool.  She lugs that thing to wherever she wants to be to see, climbs on top of it, and then proceeds to do what she wanted to.  For the most part, I allow her to do it.  But then she decided that she wanted to stand in front of the gate at the top of the stairs and I quickly put my foot down on that one.