I'm baaaaaaaaack!

So so so very much has went on in the last almost 10 months!

School was hectic, the holidays were crazy busy, we moved, the girls have grown so much, and most recently. We found out we are expecting again!

Little E is due in January(tickers updated on the side). It seemed to be a very long road to pregnancy. We decided back in October that we were ready for #3 and preferably the sooner better. It took 8 months from the time we wanted to start trying til we got the positive test. But trying to make a baby takes a lot out of you when months in a row it doesn't happen. And even worse when we kept it mostly to ourselves except a few close friends. But we are all more than thrilled. I'm only 8 weeks today but it seems to be flying by already. The morning sickness is horrible some days and not so much others.

The girls are doing wonderfully. Aria had to get glasses in Jan. and Cora is completely potty trained except for an accident here and there. Our new apartment complex has a swimming pool so we have already spent a handful of days out in the pool. Aria is a natural little fish.

Also, we have another new family member to report. We adopted a kitten a few months ago. Her name is Gypsy and she is super snuggly.

Ahhh!!!!!!

Ok, now that I feel better. A little update.

We have been crazy busy around here. I have been getting things in order for me to start school later this month. Aria finished up speech. We have had dr's appointments and dentist appointments. Trips to the Childrens' Museum and trips to the zoo. And lots and lots of outside time later in the day because its been crazy humid here. And now I am in the midst of preparing for Cora's second birthday party which is in 3 days...THREE.

Hopefully next week(After the party, before her birthday trip to the zoo, because i don't forsee time after that trip) I can hop on here and post a bigger update. But for now we are all still alive and well and busy busy busy!

A Bittersweet Day.

A little over a year ago Aria went for her 2 year well baby check up. Main topic of concern? Aria didn't talk. She had a little baby babble, and I could understand a little bit of what she said, naturally, since I spent the day with her every day. Appointments were made. Hearing was tested. Speech was evaluated. Turns out her hearing was fine, but she was considerably behind in her speech. So we started a year long adventure of twice weekly speech therapy visits.

Aria started out with a therapist named Laura. Soon after starting Laura was offered a position she couldn't refuse and moved out of state. Aria started seeing Rachel. Over the last year Aria has completely fallen in love with her. We hear about her ever day, she gets excited to go see her and is upset when its time to leave.

Today when we arrived, they told me Aria would be reevaluated, then she would be on hold for one week while her evaluation was wrote up. But that's not the case, Aria did so well she won't be going back. Shes above and beyond where she should be for her age. I'm so very proud of her. We have come so far in a year. I don't think Aria understands that she won't be going back and that makes me sad because I know in a few weeks it will probably hit her when we aren't going back. I cried on the way home. On one hand I am SO happy she is caught up, but on the other I hate to see someone she really cares about taken from her.

After we left speech today, we had a small family celebration for her. We had some cake, daddy played a little music while the girls danced, Dave's brother and a friend joined us and the 3 kids played, it was a wonderful end.

I might post pictures tomorrow, but for tonight I'm going to go snuggle with my big girl, who has accomplished so much in the last year.

I'm not happy.

So things must change. I stepped on the scale tonight, we won't discuss numbers, but I was very displeased.

I HAVE to change my life, For myself, for my children, for my husband.

First things first. Monday morning I need to go get the application to get some kind of health insurance. I know I already have Hypothyroidism and that is not helping with this weight gain. Then we AS A FAMILY need to be healthier.

Luckily, Grocery shopping is only a few days away so all of the JUNK here can GO!

I have to do this...hold me accountable! I know you people are reading!

So I have this thing...

...I like to call her my 3 yr old.

I have heard a MILLION times that terrible threes are FAR worse than Terrible Twos. Let me just tell you right now...It's the truth!

Aria has always been the "good" child. From a rather young age if she was expected to do something(be it not touch the cords, or more recently, pick up dirty clothes) she did it. Not a fuss, not a whine. She was wonderful. She would sit in time out, silently crying knowing that mommy doesn't let her out of time out if she is talking and being loud. That's just now how I roll.

Then...She turned Three. Oh yes, she has only been three for 17 days, But let me tell you, that is 17 too many...Lets skip to 4 please?

In 17 days Aria has peed on her sister, BIT ME!, sits on Cora daily, throws toys, doesn't eat, screams endlessly in time out, won't do her "chores"...I could go on, but i won't bore you with all of that. I love her dearly, but I am SO glad she is sleeping better, I'm not so sure i could handle an extra 6 hours of her games each and every day.

Oh how you were missed Mr. Sleep.

Some people say 'you don't know what you have til its gone'. Well, I am now a firm believer in 'You don't know what you are missing til you have it back!'

I posted last time that Aria doesn't sleep. She went to the dr this past Monday and this was our main topic of discussion. This was probably the longest talk we have had about one child to date. We went through the never ending list of things we had tried and came to a not so great conclusion. Odds are Aria has ADD/ADHD, granted it doesn't matter at this point. It's something that runs in both families and was kinda inevitable. We will deal with that problem when we get to that bridge.

Sooo we talked about how to get her to sleep, she is only three, sleep aids for 3year olds are virtually nonexsistant. However i had done some research of my own and wanted to try melatonin before we went to something that would drug her.

I must say BEST CHOICE EVER! It has been 5 beautiful nights of glorious sleep.

Just a quick run down...

...At 3am while I sit here and watch the weather and keep hoping that the weather man is WRONG!


Aria

• She is OFFICIALLY THREE. Man this birthday has me more emotional that the past two.
• She has the attitude of a three year old.
• She is completely day potty trained. We put her in panties under a pullup every night so she feels wet when she pees at night but she still has about one wet pullup a week.
• She still doesn't sleep. By doesn't sleep what I really mean is I don't sleep. Aria is often up til 2 or 3 am EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT.We have tried all those tips and tricks on getting your kid to sleep yeah...they don't work for her. Next stop? Talking to her dr about natural sleep aids before mommy loses her mind!
• That evil toe fungus has reared it's ugly head again. She goes to the dr on Monday for her well baby check. We will be having a nice long heart to heart about Aria and her constant can't-kick-this-whatever issues. No one else here has the fungus and I am a tiny bit OCD about how clean my bathroom and floors are. So what is the deal here man?
• Aria is also still HAPPILY rear facing. She is plenty big enough to forward face so she has on a few occasions(but NEVER before two years old) and she very much prefers to rear face, which is ok with mommy, Id rather her be safer anyway.
  

Cora

• Cora is almost 21 months old. I can't tell you how big she is because she isn't due for any shots right now so she doesn't need to see the dr until she turns two.
• Cora is most certainly almost two. She pushes our buttons daily getting into stuff she knows better than messing with.
• Cora has an amazing vocabulary. Maybe this is partly because Aria was slipping behind at Cora's age and maybe Cora really is saying a lot but it just AMAZES me house much she learns every day.

Dave
Is doing well. Currently he has a little bug that kept him home from work yesterday but he seems to be feeling MUCH better as the day progressed. His diabetes is COMPLETELY under control. When I look back to how worried we were when we found out, I feel silly. I felt so overwhelmed with the idea of having to learn to cook differently, but things are going so well with him that he has a lot more freedom than we originally thought he would have. Which also leads to me having my freedom back in the kitchen.

Myself
I'm doing well. Only sleeping 5ish hours a night is really starting to wear on me.(Aria goes to sleep between 2 and 3am, Cora is always up between 7 and 8am) I'm getting rather excited to start school...as long as we get a handle on Aria's lack of sleep.

Now, I'm going to go back to looking at the weather every 5 mintues. We had big plans to take Aria on her first trip to the zoo for her birthday...and of course its going to rain...stupid mother nature!

The time has come...

to potty train Aria. We have tried a handful of times previously with little or no success. So each time we had backed off hoping that in another few months she would be ready.

This time. I think she's got it. I dont want to jinx us here but she is doing SO well. Now back to trying to figure out what kind of cake to make her for her birthday. She wants Dora, idk if i want to make a dora cake.

But before I'm done for the night...

...I see you all! So many new readers, I promise to try and post more as things pick up around here again. So don't forget to follow us and leave some comments, I love comments!

You'll have to forgive me.

Well, you don't HAVE to forgive me, you could simply stop reading and walk away forever and never come back.

I have an excuse this time though, a good one I promise!

I had planned to post a blog about our Easter, and how things have went since my last post...IN FEBRUARY!!!! (why don't you guys send more hate mail about me not posting?) But Friday before Easter we went with my mom to a free concert(the girls' first!!!!!!) And I hurt my wrist trying to keep some guy from sitting on Aria. So typing or anything computer related has been a little slow going. No way could I have poured out everything that is to be shared without having to stop a million times.

So go grab a snack, and get comfy. Today will have LOTS of pictures to share along with all the other good bits you are waiting to hear about us!

In March, we continued to battle Aria's fungus on her feet. We had a few drs appts. about it and in the end found a cream that kicked it and we won that battle. After a looooooong 7 weeks, we were not sad to see it go. March also brought with it Aria's first illness of the warm weather. Actually, she got sick the day before my birthday, which started out thinking she MIGHT end up admitted to the hospital for breathing issues. Thank you bronchitis and double ear infection, way to make my birthday a stressful one!

March also included our second trip to the Children's Museum. The girls had a BLAST. As did Dave and I. I love that place, SO glad we bought a membership! The following are pictures from that trip.


Cora was very happy to be there.


Aria working in the ice cream shop.


Picking a "Flavor of the Day"


Trying the ice cream, which was shortly followed by an "ewww that's icky and has germs" speech.


Brushing the Dinosaurs teeth and learning about healthy habits


Cora was IN LOVE with this flower, We had to pry it out of her hands to leave it behind.


Then we saw a HUGE crocodile...


And Fed Cora to it.

After that we headed home. While there is TONS to see there, they girls are young, they get overwhelmed pretty quickly and I personally prefer to get out of town before rush hour, so I'm ok with them getting tired early on. It means that we typically get home in time to have a nice dinner rather than eating out.

In March we also did some other fun stuff, we had some nice warm days which led to days at the park, and also some cold evenings which led to adventures in finger painting(more on dad than on paper)

Our first trip to the park was a complete bust. Cora screamed about EVERYTHING, Dave was at work. So I was alone with both girls and we ended up cutting that trip short, for my sanity and for the sanity of the parents around us. Luckily the second trip(which was just out to the play ground here) was MUCH easier. Cora was ok with swinging and was perfectly content doing so the whole time we were outside.







Finger Painting on Daddy!













Stay tuned for another blog post in a few days about other things that have been going on. But for tonight, my hand is hurting and i need to give it a break.