5 days later.....

Macie's beautiful face is almost back to normal.
Before:

After:

She is loving the new view

from her Bumbo Seat.

My Mother of the Year crown has been revoked....

Macie had her first trip to the ER yesterday. I was gathering things up at my parents house so I could just quickly load the kids in the car and get going before rush hour. I walked away for a few seconds and Macie fell out their back door, down some concrete stairs, and landed on the patio....face down. I have never felt so awful, or scared in my entire life. Everything was in slow motion. I had that horrible gut feeling that something bad happened and when I didn't see her standing by the door, I freaked. I rushed to pick her up (which I am sure you're not supposed to do- but she was motionless and face down....I just wanted to get to her), I turned her over and her face had blood on it, and was scratched in places. I got her inside and cleaned some of it off. As I am doing it, I can see that she's starting to form a bruise on her forehead. I literally saw it coming to the surface, but it wasn't swelling up at all. I just decided I should probably take her to the ER and let a rational person (clearly not me) tell me that she's fine. They checked her over, gave her some graham crackers, let her calm down a bit and kept her there for about 2 hours to observe her. The Dr. offered to do a CAT scan, but felt if I just watched her closely and woke her every 2-3 hours in the night, she should be fine. We decided not to do it since he told me that they would have to "tape her down, and the radiation from it is like getting 175 x-rays". No thanks!
So, as soon as Daddy showed up and she got some grub and her blankie (Papa had to bring it to her since her IDIOT Mommy forgot it- the ONE thing that calms her down in any situation and I forgot it), she was laughing, running around and goofing around. It just looks like it hurts. She basically has a goose egg and road rash....ouch. Bad Mommy. Lesson learned. Now she really is "The Face". My poor baby!
THEN after her bath last night I emptied the tub and filled it up again for Emma's bath. I came downstairs and there was water on the kitchen counter. I looked up above the cabinets and there was a big hole in the ceiling and water was dripping out of it. It's quite interesting since the drywall came out of the ceiling in a perfectly square piece. Looks to me like the person that lived in this shit hole before us did a temporary fix on it and over time it just gave out!!! Unreal. Now there is water damage to the ceiling, walls, cabinets, etc. Wonder if I can get new cabinets out of the deal? Doubt it. What a mess.

Blogging brain fart

Now that the weather is consistently nice, we have been spending a TON of time outside. My brain is just not in blogging mode lately so I will just post some pics for now.

Congratulations!!!

Marissa and Shawn found out on Saturday that they are expecting a BOY!!!!!

Due date is September 6th!!!

Can't wait to meet him.

A couple of great days, and parenting at it's finest!

Yesterday I dropped Emma off at my parents and took Macie to the zoo. I met Susie and Jaden there. We had a blast. Macie spent some time with the goats in the children's zoo. She was way more interested in the ones that you weren't supposed to go near. They had an area where some were "resting" and Macie kept trying to climb in there. At one point she was surrounded by three goats, they had her cornered. One of them head butted her and knocked her over. She couldn't have cared less, never looked back at it...nothing. She just kept on going after she got up. She really enjoyed the Sea Otter. It was swimming around right at eye level for her.
Today it was beautiful out. I took Macie and Emma for a walk. It took us way longer to go on the walk since Macie had to stop every time a car, bus, or truck went by and wave to them. She would wave and say "hi". Sadly, the school bus drivers were very unfriendly and wouldn't wave back. She got a few honks from some guy on motorcycles. She also was a big helper and was pushing Emma in the stroller.
I only got two pictures at the zoo. It's way too hard to keep up with Macie and try to snap pictures, but I got a super cute one of Jaden.




Now this is parenting at it's finest....



I was trying to get the girls ready for our walk and Emma needed to be fed and Macie needed her snack NOW!!! So, prop the bottle up for Emma, and give Macie her snack- saves time and they are both content!

Just a few cute pictures to add:

There's nothing better

than when your little girl puts her hands on both sides of your face, pulls you close, and gives you a kiss. She followed it up with a "muah".
I love you too Macie!!!
XOXO

Macie's Day

Phil dropped Emma off at my parents this morning so we could spend the day with Macie. She's having a rough time adjusting to Emma being around so we thought a day with just her would be good. We had lunch first and then headed over to the Morton Arboretum. It was absolutely beautiful out today. They have a children's garden there where the kids can just run around and explore different things. Macie was most interested in the running around part. She did some exploring with dirt and she seems to like the taste. It was so crowded and kind of difficult to let her roam free, the big kids had little regard for the little kids. She still had a blast walking around, and just being outside. They have a "hedge garden maze" that she really enjoyed. She was just a tad taller than the top of the hedges so you could just see the top of her head wandering around, it was so cute. We left after a few hours and my parents treated us to dinner. Macie was beat by the end of the day. She really had a good time, and I think it was quite a treat for her to have Mommy and Daddy all to herself for the day. Thanks Grandma and Papa!!!

Emma's lessons from big sis

Sleep 101 - this kid has mastered sleep, please take notes.



Help wanted ads. Mom says we have to get jobs.

Emma- 2 months

My Sweet Emma-

You are two months old already, and I can't believe it. Your Daddy and I are just smitten with you and we could stare at you all day. Actually we are able to do that since you don't sleep very much!!! I keep telling myself that it's because you want to be with me 24/7. I do think that is part of it, but the other part is the fact that you take FOREVER to eat. You are such a little peanut. You don't eat very much, but you sure take your sweet time doing it. I have to have Daddy do your last feeding of the night. For some reason if I do it you fall asleep while eating, but the minute I put you down you're ready to party. If Daddy feeds you and puts you down, you sleep like a champ. You still are not sleeping through the night and that doesn't seem to be something that is going to happen anytime soon. I pray nightly for that day!!! You are still wearing mostly newborn clothes. It's cute and all, but you have quite a wardrobe that I am dying to put you in. I'm getting a tad bored with all the sleepers you live in. You have to live in the sleepers since your feet are so teeny tiny. There are no shoes, booties, or socks that stay on your feet. So.....you need to start eating more and maybe you'll grow out of newborn clothes and sleep longer.
You have already rolled over from your tummy to your back. There aren't really any milestones to speak of this past month, but you sure do love to smile. You love when anyone talks to you. You react like you know exactly what we are saying. You love your play mat and the swing. As I type this, you are going on your 5th hour of sleep in it. It's great that you can sleep that long, but we prefer you do it when we sleep!!! You are "talking" more now that you feel better. You are so much more aware of your surroundings, you reach for toys on your play mat and the fish that hang from your swing. You are trying so hard to flip over on your tummy that you spin yourself around in your crib and end up on your side. I don't have the heart to tell you that it's going to be a while before you master that task. I keep thinking you'll wear yourself out trying, but you don't.
Your big sister has accepted that fact that you are not just a temporary visitor. I think she gets frustrated that you can't play with her and she doesn't quite understand why. She does a drive by every once in a while and pats your head. She brought you a binky today without my even asking, it was so cute. You were eating and she very gently placed it on your tummy and then went about her business. She loves you, she's just having a hard time adjusting. Macie is very sensitive to a lot of noise and chaos. You screamed so much for the first month and 1/2 that I think it stressed her out a bit. You are much more quiet now that you're feeling better so she's coming around.
I love that we are a family of four now. You were the last piece to our puzzle, and we couldn't be more happy. I can't wait to see what the next few months, years, decades have in store.

Love you munchkin,

Mommy

Easter

We celebrated Easter with Phil's family this year. Everything was great- the food, family (thank you Grandma, Papa, Kim, Mike, David, Dean, Joe, Sam and Joey for all the wonderful gifts for the girls), and Macie had a great time hanging out with her cousins. Emma got to meet some family for the first time, and was also spoiled just for being born!!! Thanks Aunt Annette, Marty, Bobby and Michele.
Thank you also to my parents, Mark, Gayle, Katie and Ryan for the Easter baskets for the girls. They were all packed with goodies and some Cubs gear of course!!!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!!!
Kim- thanks for taking pictures! I didn't take many and yours are so much better!

No more mullet!

I couldn't take it anymore. Macie's mullet was making me crazy. Her hair was growing so fast in the back, and not so fast in the front. She has the most beautiful hair, and it's curly after it's washed but by the time she wakes up in the morning, the curl is just kinda wavy. My mom cut her hair on Thursday, and I am so happy there is no more mullet. Now that it's shorter there is more curl to it and it's so adorable.

Thanks Grandma!!!

She really does have her own room

We are slackers, I can admit it. Emma's nursery has been a work in progress for quite some time now. I couldn't decide on bedding for the life of me. Finally picked that and my parents got it for Emma. Then I couldn't decide what color I wanted to paint the walls. I picked a very plain crib set. I picked a color for the walls and then was having second thoughts about it. All I could think of when I walked in was Pepto had exploded everywhere. I got over it and had visions of how was going to offset the pinkness.
Well, we procrastinated too long and she came early so we never did anything more.
My parents were kind enough to take the girls today so I could work on her nursery. I wanted to steam clean the carpet in there and do some decorating.
It's still not finished, but at least it's something. I bought the glider and ottoman from a friend. It's a great quality glider, but the cushions on it are blue and white checked. I looked into getting replacement cushions for it, but they were insanely expensive. We would have been better off just getting a whole new glider. So, I am making an attempt at covering the cushions myself. We'll see how that goes!!! So, here are some pictures of what I have done so far with her room. I'll tackle the glider soon and see what I can do!

Emma- 2 month check up

Her two month check up is a week early, but it was the only way we could get in with the Dr. we like. Everything is great with Emma. The Dr. rechecked her hips and they are fine and she said she's very strong, makes great eye contact and is growing very well. According to the books, she should be sleeping 5-7 hours a night. Ha, what a joke! I am typing this on 2 hours of sleep right now. We changed meds and formula two weeks ago and she seems to be doing a bit better.
She got some shots today and followed them up with the silent cry....so sad, but she got over it quickly.
Here are her stats:
Height- 22.5 inches (65th percentile)
Weight- 10 lbs. 15 oz. (64th percentile)
Head- 15.25 inches (59th percentile)
I still can't get over the fact that Emma doesn't even weigh as much now as Macie did at 1 month.