update on our weekdays...

...so I blinked twice and this week is over.  Whew!  I ran a bunch of errands, had a couple playdates, took Seth to swim lessons, actually got to work, cleaned the house, made goodies for Amelia's party, preassembled a massive amount of meals at Dream Dinners, and registered Seth for kindergarten.  Most days I've been getting up with Nathan, and I see now why he goes to bed so early!  We have had a busy weekend...I'll post more on that later!

Want a custom diaper cake?

2/28/10 UPDATE:  Jonah's EB Auction raised $7553.01 for DebRA and my diaper cake went for $45!

Jonah's EB Auction starts tomorrow!  Over the weekend, the website displayed all the items donated.  Here is the diaper cake gift certificate they made for me (which is way better than anything I would have thought up!):

So, I have linked here if you are interested in bidding on a diaper cake.  You don't have to pay for shipping, so don't be stingy!  The website posted details on bidding here.  Go check out all the items!  I was amazed at the variety!

last week

Last week was kind of busy...hence the lack of posts.  Amelia and I did finally attend storytime at the library, but I forgot my camera.  She didn't want to sit on the floor with the other kids, but she was all about dancing to the music between books.  Wednesday I worked, after running crazy errands all morning (usually I stay closer to home the days I have to work).  Thursday Seth had the day off of school for parent-teacher conferences.  We went to the Y, and then headed to the school for our conference.  We then headed to Concord Mills (because it made our 5 minute trip to Charlotte to pick up our race packets a little more justified).  I found a couple good deals, but didn't do any serious shopping.  I parked right by the playground, so we stopped there on our way out. 

We got home from our adventure with about one hour to spare before it was time to go to swim lessons!  Friday we had a luncheon baby shower for one of my coworkers.  Amelia was really well-behaved at the Olive Garden (probably because she loves noodles and other kids were acting out, so she figured she didn't have to!).  Seth went to McD's after school with his buddies, and we picked him up there.  The weekend afternoons were beautiful.  We grilled out Saturday, and the kids and I had lots of playground time both afternoons!

Cupid Cup 5k

Yesterday Nathan and I ran in the Cupid Cup 5k in  Charlotte.  A family friend of the Mayses was a sponsor for the race, so we decided it would be a fun unique Valentine's date, plus give us a chance to spend time with Nathan's parents.  Unfortunately, the original race date was snowed out, and the Mayses had headed for warmer climates this weekend.  But other than the fact that we had to get up at the crack of dawn yesterday, Plan B worked out just fine.  The Johnstons were staying downtown after going to the Bobcats game, so the kids played with their cousins while we ran.  The route was fairly easy, but this was probably my least favorite race.  I'm still having airway issues after my cold, and breathing is kind of important when trying to run.  Despite that, though, I was a few seconds faster than our last race, Nathan was fast as usual, and as a team (yes, he signed us up as a team!) we placed sixth out of 33 mixed-gender couples.  And just so you know...I picked out the next race, and hopefully it won't be cold.  And I'm hoping to get a movie night in between now and then!

Suzie stitches...

Please pardon the quality of these pictures.  1-I am not a photographer.  2-The factory-refurbished camera is turning out to be much like its predecessor.  3-I had an unwilling model the day I tried to take these pictures.  Anyways, after one of the snows, my college roommate posted a picture of her son wearing a CUTE bear 'boggin on FB.  I commented on it, and found out that Nathan's cousin's wife had made it for her.  At around the same time, Suzanne's little pasttime started becoming a little side-business for her.  I looked at her etsy page and saw the flower hat...Nathan and I couldn't decide which one we liked best, so we ordered one of each! 

Amelia is really diggin' her hats (she prefers to be a bear, Nathan and I like the flower one on).  Unfortunately, she's still not a fan of the camera, so these are the best pictures I have right now.  Check out Suzanne's page!  She's making some cute custom stuff!

Wacky Tacky

Last night was Parents Night Out again at the YMCA.  It was Wacky Tacky night.  Nathan and I both appreciate a good costume party, and it appears the kids have inherited that.  I had no trouble getting them into their outfits for the night.  In fact, they both picked out their shoes and at last minute decided to wear hats!  Wacky?  Yes.  Tacky?  Yes.  A fun night out for the kids?  YES!

life threw us a snowball...

For the third Friday in a row, it has snowed at our house.  Luckily, this one was a "typical" snow and has almost completely melted as I type this.  However, we were supposed to run in a race in Charlotte early this morning (more on that, hopefully, next week).  We were going to meet Nathan's parents in Charlotte last night, and they were going to watch the kids for us while we ran this morning.  Nathan's mom called yesterday afternoon as I was finishing up packing and told us the race had been postponed.  Bummer.  Seth was one disappointed little boy, and we had to make heart-shaped sugar cookies to "fix his broken heart".  So...we had a nice evening at home.  Seth had fun playing on skype, and he was able to get a much-needed haircut this morning.  Nathan and I watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.  Today we went to the Y, and Nathan and I both had personal best treadmill runs...it would have been a great day to race!

...almost two....

I painted Amelia's toenails for the first time this week.  The boys were boxing on Wii, so we had a little girl-time.  She loves them...so much she refuses to wear socks most of the time, so she can look at her "purple".

She has gotten REALLY opinionated about what she is going to wear, when.  Yes, she is wearing her pajamas, with galoshes at Costco.  It was not worth the fight.

She's had a few tizzies at home, but yesterday she had her first out-in-public tantrum.  We were at Kohls, and she wanted to sit in the mesh basket in the cart.  Not an option.  In the checkout line, she started flailing around and then went and laid down in the cart return:

I could see her perfectly from the cash register, so I calmly finished my transaction, took this picture, and told her I was going to leave.  She said, "Bye, Mom.  I'm so mad."  So I picked her up and we had a little "discussion" about how to be a good girl at the store.  Until recently, she has been a really good shopper.  Oh, twos, here we come!

Jonah's EB Auction

I have been a NICU nurse for almost 10 years now.  Most days I love my job.  People ask how I can take care of such sick babies and how I can stand when they go home.  My job is to get them better so they can go home.  I have always understood that sometimes, that will not happen.  When I worked full-time, I used to have primaries, which meant that whenever I worked, I would have those babies.  Some I have kept in touch with over the years, and it does my heart so good to get updates and pictures from their parents (although it's starting to make me feel old!). 

You may have noticed that I put a new button of the sidebar.  Jonah was not a primary of mine, but he has touched my heart, and I have rooted for him all year long.  Jonah's birthday is the day before Amelia's.  Due to some bad scheduling on my part, I had to work a four-hour shift the night before Amelia's birthday.  I had barely gotten my shift started when I was told I needed to get ready to get an admission...who ended up being Jonah.  Never has an admission upset me so much.  Jonah has epidermolysis bullosa (EB).  He had horrible boo-boos all over his skin, just from contact within the womb.  It broke my heart that a beautiful term baby could be born with something like this...and at that point in time, we weren't exactly sure what his prognosis would be.  I reported off to the nurse who had precepted me, so I knew he was in good hands, but still I had a restless night, worried about Jonah and his family.  (I have his mother's permission to talk about this, I promise.)

Flash forward a few days (a week?).  I'm at the grocery store, and I see one of our attendings on the cover of the local paper.  It is an article about Jonah, and his mom's blog.  Though I never took care of Jonah again during his NICU stay, I have followed his journey this past year through the blog.  I truly believe that some babies are given the right parents.  Those who should have struggled, have thrived, because they have parents who love them and advocate for them.  Jonah is near the top of my list of those kind of kids. 

Several weeks ago, Patrice said they be doing an auction in February, to raise funds for DebRA.  So I emailed the contact person, explained how I knew Jonah, and offered to make a diaper cake to be auctioned off.  To my surprise, they were very excited about it!  I am donating a custom-made diaper cake.  There are almost 100 items to be auctioned off, so please check it out!  I will post again to let you know when the auction starts.

snowbunny

This little girl LOVES the snow.  In fact, this morning we woke up to about three new inches that we weren't expecting.  She must have looked out her window, because when she came out of her room, she said, "I need mittens."  She was ready to go at 7:20! 

Snow Days

We have been out of school all week.  Well, technically today was a 2-hour delay, but Seth has double ear infections, so we went to the doctor instead of school.  After Nathan went to work Monday afternoon, Seth decided he wanted to shovel the deck.  That lasted all of three minutes:

Amelia wanted to go outside the minute she woke up from nap.  Seth played outside with us for a few minutes, and proceded to fall asleep in the basement.  Amelia made snow castles:

Kaitlyn and Ethan came over to sled...Seth still doesn't know they were here while he napped!

Tuesday I took the kids to BounceU, and then Seth started his second month of swim lessons.  He has a new teacher this month, which I don't think is a good thing.  We had another playdate yesterday morning, and then Seth got sick after I left for work.  Isn't that always the way?  So another quiet morning at home here...and more bad weather on the way.  Yuck!

...it's not Christmas, but it IS winter...

Friday night we had our second winter storm of the season, six weeks to the day after the last one, and fairly similar, except this one brought just a little bit of the nasty sleet along with it.  We woke up to six or seven inches of snow.  Colette was not amused when I tried to document her first trip out that day:

There were neighbors sledding down the next road, so we went to investigate, and had a great time sliding down the slick hill.  I'm so glad I actually bought sleds this year!

Thanks to the sleet, the snow is a little more crunchy than last time.  We had to push the kids down into the snow to start their snow angels:

Nathan wasn't feeling great Sunday, so I took the kids out by myself.  They had a great time sledding down our driveway (by then the plow had cleared the streets):

Sunday afternoon after nap, Amelia woke up wanting to play in the snow.  Seth didn't, so I took Amelia for a walk.  Well, she rode in the sled, I walked.  We went to see the neighborhood geese and found Nickolas on our way back.  Seth joined us for more sledding and playground fun.  We played outside until it was too dark to see. 

Today schools are out, and Nathan didn't have to go to work until noon.  We did make a family trip to the grocery store, and were able to make it up the driveway in the Xterra.  I have chili in the crockpot, just in case we play the afternoon away like we did yesterday...this snow isn't going to hang around as long as the last batch did!