Ten on Tuesday

Stuff I've been obsessing over:

1. Daniel's cold.
2. Perfecting the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie receipe I got online.
3. Getting my stuff togather to go back to school.
4. Missing Stephanie
5. Getting some sleep.
6. Being jealous of all the fun autumn activities Brian and Aimee are doing.
7. Not being ready for cold weather.
8. Losing weight. (Kind of hard when I'm trying to perfect a cookie receipe.)
9. How much I love the Baby Bear and Zoe characters on Sesame Street.
10. Keeping Aimee from watching Wiggles DVD's all day long. .

First Cold

Daniel caught a cold last week. Tuesday morning was very scary because he really couldn't breathe. After sleeping all night with a humidifier and having nasal drops put in his nose, he still couldn't breathe, so I put him in the bathroom with the hot shower going for 45 minutes. That seemed to help, but only for a little while. I called the doctor as soon as they were open and they had me bring him in. It was just a cold, but his doctor explained that if it turned into an infection, he'd have to be admitted into the hospital. She said that if his temperature went up to 100.5, to take him straight to the ER. That made for a very nerve racking few days.
It's almost a week later, and his nose is still a bit stuffy, but thank God, no fevers or worsening symptoms.

I feel terrible for having taken him out and now I've decided to barracade us in the house for the next few weeks. No outings. No nonfamily visitors.

Fiberglass pony...

Grandma Carol and Aimee riding the Train at Sonny Acres

Sonny Acres Pony Ride

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, especially for Aimee. Aimee needs to leave the house just as much as I do, our sanity depends on our fun outings. Today, I decided that we'd go for a Pony Ride to Sonny Acres with my mom, who is staying with us for a few days. It is my policy to not tell Aimee where we are going until we are almost there. I don't want her to be dissapointed if we have to turn around or cancel for whatever reason. Too many times where my dad SWORE up and down that we were going to Six Flags Great America, when in reality we were just going to buy lottery tickets I guess. I checked the weather several times to make sure that it would be a good day. So today, I broke my policy and out of desperation, to get her to take a nap, I told her that if she napped we'd go ride horsies after she woke up. The day was beautiful at 11 am. It was Sunny and almost warm.


Then she woke up from her nap. "GOING TO RIDE HORSIES!", were the first words she said when she woke up. Then I realized that the sunny sky was now overcast, and the almost warm air turned cold, and it was sprinkling rain. Crap. Now what? So I told her we were going to ride the pretend horsies at the mall. All she heard was "Horsies". Now I should probably tell you that last week, on a perfect day, her Grandma Carol and Aunt Mona took us to Sonny Acres and she indeed rode the Horsies and she LOVED every second of it. So I was a little more than nervous that she would freak out when she realized that we were going to ride fiberglass horsies and not the real thing.


So off to the mall we went. We headed straight for the Carusel in the center of the mall, and she LOVED it. She enjoyed it so much she actually made a scene and the people around us, including the operator, couldn't help but smile every time we came around.


The second part of our trip was not as successful. My mom was dealing with a mini emergency, while Aimee decided that today would be the perfect day to become "That Kid" in the play area that bullies a smaller kid. Then the baby started crying and rather than nurse in the middle of the mall, or spent an hour getting him to drink a bottle, I decided to go home. Aimee protested until we reached the door of the mall. I really tried to hold it togather, and my mom was really supportive, but I realize that this going out with TWO kids deal is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

For my Aimee and Daniel...

My commitment to you:

I will keep growing.
I will not become content to live in stagnation,
not moving forward
simply existing.

I will acknowledge my flaws.
I will say I'm sorry.
I will seek healing for that which is wrong in me.

I will not allow my good intentions
to become abstract concepts
that evaporate in the wind.

Because you are worthy.

Seriously...

The baby and I are sleeping in a different room from Brian because Brian's job is to program machines that could seriously hurt him if he makes a mistake. In other words...he needs to be well rested so he doesn't kill himself or anyone else at work.

Before I had Daniel, I stayed up at night worrying about how I'd make it through the 3 week recovery period if I had a c-section. That was a breeze. My mom was here, when she wasn't here, my in-laws came over. I physically recovered rather quickly, and it wasn't anywhere near as difficult as it was when I had Aimee.

I've had 2 hours of sleep tonight. Brian's alarm is going off, and I'll just wait for him to go to work to go to sleep. Aimee will be up 2-3 hours after that. I did not, in any way, anticipate how incredibly difficult these short period of my life would be. I am hopeful that in 3 more weeks, Daniel will start to sleep longer through the night (Aimee started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks old). Until then, I am going to use prayer to help me get through the days, because taking care of a demanding 2 year old can be a real test of will and perserverance on 4 hours of sleep that were attained an hour at a time.

Also...I've decided to give into the technological revolution and I'm going to save up for an Ipod. I'll probably get a nano since I don't think I'll need to store 10,000 songs in my lifetime. Does anyone know if you can use a dock thingy with a nano?

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation has set in. It's keeping me from being able to string togather a coherent sentence worth reading, so here are some pictures instead.

Aimee Meeting Daniel for the first time.

Brian's Cousin, Robin and Daniel

I stole this pic from Brian's Uncle.

I havn't been blogging or emailing much for obvious reasons, but I thought I'd take a few minutes to answer some common questions.

1. How is Aimee?

Aimee is doing wonderfully. Better than we could have hoped for, and we owe that to her grandparents. She has had nonstop attention from her Abuela who stayed with us almost an entire week and is coming to stay with us for another week after a brief break to go home and take care of some business. Her Grandma and Grandpa W have paid visits almost every day, bringing little gifts for her each time. She's also had tons of quality time with Brian, who has made sure to take her on fun "Daddy/Daughter Dates" at least every other day.

2. Is Aimee jealous?

No. She had a few minor incidents of jealously, but no blowouts or tantrums. Lately, my biggest problem is that she wants to hold Daniel when I am going to feed him. When visitors arrive to the house, she runs over to Daniel and proudly announces to the visitor that it's "Baby DANIEL!"

3. How are you feeling?

I am feeling ok. He was born via C-section. I've been following the Dr's orders and I've been resting, eating well, and taking my pain meds.

4. Does he cry a lot?

He hardly cries or makes any noise at all. Stephanie says that he takes after Brian, and Aimee, Ms. Drama queen, takes after our side of the family.

That's about all I have for now. Everything is going really well. We are so in love with our little guy and so thankful for his health, for a good delivery, and that God saw us worthy of giving us another child. We are also humbled and grateful for everyone's thoughtfulness and generousity. Four of our neighbors, most of whom we hardly know, have come by to bring us dinner, complete with chocolately desserts! Our church friends have come by also bringing food and gifts, we've received lovely cards and emails, and our families have made sacrifices to be at our side and to support us. We are humbled and grateful. Thank you.