At the Hop!

Last weekend, we got all dressed up and went to a 50's Sock Hop for Steve's work.  We weren't sure who we would know there, as most of his coworkers had already told him they wouldn't be there.  We ended up knowing (and getting to sit with) another couple that we know who just had a baby.  It was exciting to not only have others we know, but could connect with in conversation.

Not very many people dressed up, but Steve was a trooper and put up with my antics.  I already had a poodle skirt (and saddle shoes!) from a musical I was in during my junior year in highschool.  I borrowed my dad's letter sweater from his senior in in high school and had Steve wear it.  For little Bean, I quickly made a poodle skirt for her and pulled together the rest of her outfit from items we had.  All together, the night cost us $2 (the price of the materials for Bean's skirt!).  Sweet :)!

The evening included dinner, root beer floats, raffle, Elvis impersonator, and costume contest.  Naturally, we won "best dressed couple" and got to pick out our prize.  We chose a really nice glass beverage dispenser (you know, for the bazillion parties we have. HA!).

(Daddy & Bean)

(Closeup of Bean's skirt and my dad's letter sweater.  The "K" is for Kokomo High School.)

(Best dressed couple!  Pretty sure Bean stole that award for us.)

(Daddy's Girls)

(Momma & Bean.  I had to refrain from breaking out in song and dance and reliving my musical days.  Don't worry, I spared Steve the embarrassment.)

A Special Visit with a Special Friend

A couple of weekends ago, we had some very special visitors.  One of my great friends whom I met in Tennessee came with her daughter for a long weekend visit! It was supposed to be a girls weekend, but just before coming, she found out she is expecting a son!  We'll let it slide this time little guy ;-).  I hadn't seen them since we met them in Gatlinburg last year. Unfortunately (especially for Steve!) her husband Jake and son Henry (12 months) didn't get to come.  So we got to have a little girls weekend (+Steve).

I picked up Jennifer and her daughter Kate (20 months) from the Dayton airport at noon on a Friday.  Since we were in Dayton and it was lunchtime, we headed over to Dewey's (our favorite pizza place) for some delicious pizza.  After eating, we loaded the kids back in the car and headed home!

Jennifer is a faithful blog reader - ha! - and was excited to finally get to see our house in person.  I think Kate loved the house, too!  She especially loved the stairs! Since are house isn't really baby-proofed for a mobile child, we had to improvise in some areas to keep Kate safe.  Thanks to our tv box (see Steve, boxes come in handy and it isn't stupid that I keep EVERY box), we were able to contain Kate in the living room and block off the stairs when needed.

That evening, we went over to a friend's house for a product party.  Kate was the life of the party and keeping everyone entertained with her antics.

(Right away, Bean and Kate were bffs.  Notice Bean touching Kate's face.  So sweet!)

(These two were also quick BFF's as well!  Kate must have remembered Steve rocking her to sleep from our visit in Gatlinburg.)

On Saturday, I took Jennifer & Kate to one of my favorite places in Lima -- to get some cupcakes from Sara!  After picking up the cupcakes and keeping Kate from terrorizing the store (haha), we headed over to Hobby Lobby & Joann's to check out some fabric.  I ended up getting some fabric to make a poodle skirt for Bean, but that's another story.  The rest of the day we just chilled out at the house, watching the kids play and, of course, eating cupcakes!

(It was so cute to see the kids "play" together.  Basically, Bean played in her jumper and Kate would come over and make Bean laugh.  It was really cute.  Kate would also climb into the jumper all by herself when Bean was elsewhere.  Jennifer sure has her hands full with that one!  I find myself with no time with just Bean, I can't imagine having 2 little ones AND one on the way! Yikes. She's supermom in my book!)

On Sunday, we headed to church in the morning.  Jennifer watched the girls while I practiced with the choir, and then we headed to our morning class and met up with Steve.  Kate was all about hanging out with Steve in class.  She stood patiently while he was getting some breakfast and ate it, then she climbed up on his lap and just chilled throughout class.  Kate can be very wild, but can surprisingly be very calm as well!  She sat so quietly through class.  I was really impressed! She did just as well in the big service - go Kate!  We did a lot more chilling that afternoon (and I think some naps were taken, too!).

We went a little crazy on Monday, loaded the kids up early and headed to Cincinnati to go to IKEA! I introduced Jennifer to Ikea back in the day.  We felt like we had to go and pass on our love to our girls.  Start them young, right??  We feasted on hotdogs, strolled through the showroom, and I even purchased a couple of trash cans!  The trip back north felt longer than it should have.  At one point, both girls were losing it in the back seat.  We had to make a little pit stop so I could feed Bean, but that didn't totally make her happy.  She finally calmed down when I gave her her bunny lovie.  Kate finally calmed down after realizing there was nothing she could do about getting out of that seat. HA!

We got home by late afternoon.  Steve came home a few hours later.  We ate dinner, then all crammed in 1 car (which is quite the challenge with 2 carseats in the back!) and headed to another favorite Lima locale -- Pete's ice cream!  We had great weather while they were visiting, but it definitely wasn't ice cream weather! I was freezing as we sat outside eating our ice cream.

(Yum-o! It's hard to tell, but Kate's ice cream cone technique is to lick the ice cream at the top, and eat the cone starting at the bottom. So silly!)

Tuesday morning came way too quickly.  Jennifer packed all their stuff up while Kate and Bean got in their last playing time together.  We loaded the car up one last time and headed back towards Dayton.  Even though the little girls had been in the car way too much that weekend, they did great one last time.  Jennifer and I tried to cram in our last face to face conversations.

(What a blessing this girl is to me!  It was so neat to let her love on my daughter as I got to love on hers.  What a special friendship we have!)

The weekend seemed to fly by way too quick!  It was so great getting to just relax and catch up on life with her.  I had flashbacks to when we lived in Tennessee and we'd hang out.  Our conversation back then was mostly focused on the desires to become mothers, coupons and current deals, and the Kardashians ;-).  This time around, our discussions were focused on our kids, pregnancy, and the Browns (from TLC's SisterWives, haha).  Jennifer has been a great source to go to for advice on how to manage life with multiple kids and I was excited to be a source for her on pregnancy and what to expect when that little guy makes his debut.  I am so excited for their growing family and can't wait to meet the new addition!  Steve and I are currently in talks of visiting them later this year.

(Until next time!)

Jinxed

I shouldn't have posted about the basement yesterday!  Just a couple hours after posting, I went to check on the basement since the sump pump was going off every couple of minutes and it was raining a lot out.  After just going down a couple of steps, I could already see the water.  The basement flooded AGAIN!

At least everything was protected since I had cleaned up.  Only thing that got wet this time was a tv box, but I caught it early so it was just a corner.  I immediately shut the furnace off (water was all under it and slowly rising) and called Steve.  He didn't answer but called me right back.  He was actually at his desk and able to drop everything and come right home! Good thing it happened on this day, because any other day and I would have been on my own.

(At least the basement is clean??)

(The pictures are very deceiving, but the water was a couple inches deep in most areas.  In the main area where I sat and bailed out water was 4-6" deep.  The water definitely went over my feet and soaked through my boots)

Since we've been through this before, we knew just what to do.  Steve got to work sucking the water up with the wet vac while I tended to Bean.  She went down for a nap shortly after he started working, and then I joined him.  I resumed my position in the room with all the water and paddled water with a tote lid through a hole to the pump closet.  I worked until Bean woke up.  Steve finished up about a half hour after I left him.  We didn't get all the water up, but got it contained to a smaller area.  Steve set up a couple dehumidifiers to help with the drying process.

(What an amazing husband to come to our rescue!)

(Steve pried up more of the plexiglass that covered the sump pump.  He then positioned the wet vac near the pump and fed the hose through the hole in the wall - see next picture.  By having the vac near the pump basin, he didn't have to waste too much time dumping the water each time.

(I sat on a chair facing the hole from the other side.  This was my view.  I got to watch and make sure the hose stayed under the waterline.)

(I continuously paddled the water with a tote lid to get the water to go through the hole that the hose was coming through.  That way, the vac was filling with water while water was also sloshing through the hole and into the sump pit.)

(Steve would take breaks from vacuuming and emptying out the vac- the water was heavy! I'm pretty sure he's contemplating life at this point. . . or maybe just how to prevent this from happening again.)

We know the flooding corresponds to the rain since it was raining when this happened last time.  However, another problem is in play.  About a month ago, we noticed sewage coming up out of a drain in the basement.  We ended up having to hire a plumber that snaked the sewage stack.  Earlier this week, I noticed that drain was looking wet again and had just mentioned to Steve maybe the plumber didn't fix the problem.  Well I guess the answer is that he did not! After cleaning up the water, and running a couple of showers, we discovered that sewage was backing up int he basement along with all the water.  Just lovely.

Basement -- Check!

I have finally been able to start checking things off my "To-Do" List from before Bean was born.  Remember that flood we had in our basement?  I didn't want to mess with cleaning it up while I was pregnant, then I never had time once Bean was here, but a couple weekends ago, I finally cleaned up the basement!

I wish I had taken before pictures, but once I decided I was going to focus on that space, I just got straight to work and didn't stop.  The actual room that flooded is our storage space.  When the flood happened, we moved all the totes and salvageable boxes out of that space and put them in the laundry room.  Then Christmas happened, I got into the totes and never put stuff properly back in them.  So then our laundry room was full of random decorations, open boxes, piles of trash, P&G product strewn about, etc.  I had a little path to get to and from the laundry machines, but that was about it.  I couldn't get to the ironing board without stepping on stuff.  Good thing ironing is a rare thing around here.

(Now I can actually see the floor!  Imagine junk all over the place and that is what the before picture would look like.)

(Look at that small stash of P&G product!  My supplies have been dwindling.  I got it all straightened up and organized just in time for more to arrive in a couple weeks!)

(This is the room that flooded.  Now it is back in working order and housing our storage totes!  Confession, I didn't get the floor all cleaned up in here like I had hoped.  I swept half of it and left it on the other side to be cleaned up later.  Oh well, baby steps, right?)

(Other confession, I did nothing with this space.  Ha!  All that stuff on the left is boxes/wood that got damaged by the water.  The shelves need some organization so that this space is used a little better.  Maybe I'll get to it this summer?  Ha!)

(Other side of that space.  Again, more boxes of trash and random items that need to be disposed of.  Hopefully I can get husband on board with this project and we can actually make this space like a little workshop.)

She Looks Like Who?!

I am constantly asked, "Who does "Bean" look like?"  Well, the answer is simply, both of us!  I think Bean is quite the mix between the two of us.  She may have a few more features like me, but she has her daddy's coloring (as of now).

When she was first born, I would have said she looks exactly like me!  Her newborn photo and my newborn photo are very similar.  Unfortunately, I don't have a digital copy (or currently a hard copy) of my picture, so you'll have to take my word for it.

However, I do have some baby photos of Steve and I to try to compare with who she looks more like.  So here you go -- who do you think Bean looks like?

Steve?

(Steve)

(Bean)

(Steve)

Lindsey?

(Lindsey)

(Bean)

(Lindsey -- Note, my eyes are blue and not brown as they appear in these two pictures.)

One thing is for sure --- she has Steve's profile as far as mouth and chin:

(I could tell from the ultrasound that she had Steve's mouth and chin.  I'm pretty sure her forehead and eyes are more like mine.)

And last but not least:

She can have some pretty crazy eyes!  Hmmm. . .who does she get those from?

Me??

Or Steve??

A Muddy Story

I had another first this week.  I got my car stuck in mud, and boy do I mean stuck!  It took 5 girls, 1 guy, and a tractor to finally free my car.

What was supposed to be a surprise party for a lady from church.  I picked up my friend Sara and headed towards the lady's house who was throwing the party.  On the invite, she had stated to drive through her yard around to the back of the house to park and hide the cars.  I did just that, or at least I tried.  I had only gone about 8 feet in the yard when  I started thinking, "Hmmm, I'm leaving tire marks, it's going to be obvious cars are driving back here.  Oh man, this is really muddy, I might get stuck." I'm pretty sure I said the last part out loud, because Sara responded with a "maybe you should back out".

Well, it was too late.  I wasn't going anywhere, at least without tearing up the yard.  I left Sara in the car with Bean and I went to find the host and let her know of the situation.  She came out and we decided to try to get the car back on the driveway.  She and I ended up pushing the car while Sara manned the gas.  We got the car rocking, but would need more help in getting it free.  We decided to go inside and deal with the car later since the birthday girl was due to arrive.  However, I'm pretty sure it was going to be obvious that something was up by the car randomly parked in the yard :)

We had a good time at the party.  Ate delicious food, laughed, and met some new ladies.  After cake and presents, I had to ask for help with the car so that I could get Bean home and to bed.  The ladies donned some extra clothes and shoes from the host and came out to help.  There were about 4 of us pushing on the car.  We could get the car rocking, but in the end, it was just digging deeper holes (and kicking up mud all over -- sorry Candace!).

(This is where the car first got stuck and we are attempting to push it backwards onto the driveway about 10 feet away.  Since it was my car, I tried to make sure I was always doing the most work - I felt awful having women who were all dressed up for a party pushing my car in the mud!  The next day, my arms were so sore!)

(Tht's one pretty stuck wheel!  We tried to use planks to give traction to the tires, but we couldn't get them down in the mud at the right angle.  There are no more pictures of the rescue attempt because from here on out, it was pretty dark.  The beginning of the rescue started at 8pm.)

One of the wives called her husband (he was to pick her up) and he brought his truck and some cables.  Only problem was that he feared driving his truck on the yard and getting stuck himself.  So for some reason, he ended up in the driver's seat with 4/5 girls pushing from the back (so far we had been trying from the front since that would be the shorter distance to get the car out of the yard).  Ironically, his wife ended up slipping off the edge of the back as we were pushing and landed in the mud (this was the first time I had met these people, too!).  We regrouped after laughing and continued pushing.  Finally, the car lurched forward!  I yelled, "Don't get the back tires in the holes!", just as the back tires got stuck in the holes. HA!  We had to push it some more, and it was free!

The guy continued to drive the car, making a big arc pattern around the edge of the yard, only the further he got, the muddier it got!  We had to keep pushing on the back and helping him out until the car ended up getting stuck again, only this time it was much worse! At this point, it was decided that the only way the car was coming out of the yard was by being towed.  The husband who was helping out found a chain that would work.  At this point, the front of the car was closer to the driveway, but the front end of the car was down in the mud and there was no way to get under the bumper to find a place to attach the chain.  So the decision was made to attach it to the frame at the back, and have a tractor tow the car all the way back around the arc back to the original starting point.

At this point, I got in the driver's seat and put my backing up skills to the test (don't worry, I have good backing up and parallel parking skills).  I had the car in reverse (neutral did nothing) and I let the tractor do most of the work.  A couple of times, I had to give it some gas if it started to get stuck.  It seems like this whole ordeal should have lasted way longer than it did, but in just over a half hour, my car was back on pavement!!! Oh, and I forgot to mention, that Steve had decided to come and try to help.  He pulled into the driveway as the tractor was finishing the arc and nearing the driveway -ha!

And what about Bean?!  I had snapped her into her carseat at the get-go of all the pushing.  When I realized that us girls couldn't just push the car out, I was going to unsnap the seat, and put her inside with a couple other ladies; however, in the 5 minutes of pushing the car, she had fallen asleep!  I made the decision to just leave the sleeping babe in the car that whole time.

I feel absolutely terrible for the yard my car tore up :-/.  I'm hoping that just filling in the holes and throwing on some grass seed will do the trick.  I've been having nightmares and anxiety all week stressing out about their yard.  If it was my own yard, I'd laugh it off as lesson learned, but it's really hard to do that with someone else's property.  And the worse part of the whole story?!  Had we just hooked the chain up at the back of the car at the get go, the damage would have just been 2 holes from the front tires, and not long car tracks, numerous holes, and mud everywhere.  UGH

(I was able to document the damage the next day.  Well, the "damage" to the car.  Luckily, we live close to a car wash.  It just so happened to be a rainy day the next day, so I pulled the car out of the garage and into the rain.  It rained just enough to wet the mud on the car.  I then loaded Bean up and we headed to the car wash.)

(Aaaaand the other side of the car.)

5 Months!

It seems that in this last month Bean has gone form being a baby to a big girl!  I guess what I really mean is we've transitioned from that newborn stage of being an observer in the world to an infant and active participant in the world.

It seems like in one week, Bean transformed over night.  She now plays in her jumper/exersaucer for around 20-30 min at a time.  I can leave her in there and get other things done around the house.  When she's done jumping and playing with its toys (she can't spin herself in it yet, but she can reach from side to side, hit the buttons that light up an sing, and grab at the other toys), she'll lay on her activity mat for another 20-30 min playing with the critters that hang as well as with her own feet.  She loves her feet and loves taking her socks off her feet.

(She LOVES this thing.  We have a pillow currently placed under it, but she can finally reach the floor with her toes.  She holds herself up so well in it and can reach from the left (toys on yellow tray) all the way to the right (toys on orange tray).  You can get her excited while in it by pretending to jump and telling her to jump.  She'll mimic you and make herself bounce!  She can also hit the buttons to play music.  What a big girl!)

Bean has also started eating rice cereal.  She gets a serving of it at night in between nursing sessions.  I try to get her to eat the cereal around 6-7, with her last nursing session between 7-8.  She loves the rice cereal!  I mix it with breastmilk and make it thick in the beginning, but by the end of eating, it has thinned out (breastmilk has an active enzyme in it that thins out the rice cereal).  She's doing very well at using the spoon (even though she often grabs at it and tries to shove it in her mouth) and swallowing the mix.  When we first started, I wasn't sure how much was actually getting in, but now it is all going in.  Also, the frist 3 nights we started the cereal, she slept through the night!  I had very high hopes of that continuing, but after night 3, she went back to her waking up once (sometime between 4-6).

Bean isn't set on a schedule according to time, but I am working on trying to get her into a better routine.  This past month, we did some traveling to IN.  I am usually pretty lacks when we are visiting with family as far as her routine.  I try to get her to bed around the same time each night, but don't stress out about the naps.  If she has a couple of days of limited naps, I know she'll make up for it when things settle back down.

(On a trip to Indiana, we were able to get all the grandkids together - minus an add on- which is quite the rare occasion!  Another rare thing - everyone was looking at the camera!  Well, at least all who were awake for the picture were looking!)

In general her schedule looks like this:

8am - wake up, nurse, play in jumper & mat
10:30am - nap time!
11am - nurse, play in jumper, nap (or we do errands at this point)
12:30pm - nap!
2pm - nurse, play in jumper & mat
3:30pm - nap!
5pm - nurse, play with mommy &/or daddy, sit in Bumbo or bouncer seat while mommy makes dinner
7pm - bath time, eat rice cereal
8pm, nurse
9pm - if she hasn't fallen asleep while nursing, we go upstairs, rock & read stories
4:30am - nurse & back to sleep by 5am

Now, that schedule isn't the same time every day, but it is that general routine.  Recently, she's back to picking up a little catnap in the evenings (around 6:30) for 20 minutes.  I think that's a sign that maybe we should be moving bedtime up sooner.  That's one of the new goals I am working on.  We've at least achieved eating every 3 hours which I started working on in January! I'm also trying to figure out a more consistent nap schedule.  I never know how long a nap will be.  Generally, her morning nap is around 1.5 hr, and then her afternoon naps are around an hour each.  Although, sometimes she'll randomly have a 3 hour nap that screws up her sleeping the rest of the day.  I've often gone into her room to wake her up, but seeing her so peaceful while sleeping, I usually just leave her and let her dictate her own nap needs.

Other accomplishments this month - Bean can roll over both ways! She doesn't last long on her tummy when we put her on it.  She immediately flips either to the right or left to get on her back.  She can go from her back to her tummy, but doesn't do it often.  Usually this happens when she's craning to see the tv or reach for a random toy.  I still lay her on her back on her mat and leave the room to do other things.  I try to peak in on her every 5 min or so to make sure she's still doing okay.  A couple of times, I've heard her struggling and return to find her flipped on her tummy with her arm pinned under her - silly girl!

(Almost there!  She can completely roll over, but usually she likes to roll into this position.)

Bean shows no signs of crawling, but often scoots around on her back, especially while sleeping in her crib!  Every morning, I never know where she'll be positioned in her crib.  Sometimes she's wedged up in the top corner, or even perpendicular to the way I left her.  I'm waiting for the day where she's a complete 180 degrees turned.  I also never know how her blanket will end up.  Today, I found her hiding under it, but usually it's wrapped around her wasted with her arms and legs out and in the air.

(Wedged in the corner after a nap.)

(I heard a bunch of coos and laughter on the monitor after a nap.  When I went into her room, all I could see was her little feet above the crib wall.  What a goof!)

And the last big change this month -- her poop and farts now reek!  This is one of those negative side effects of the rice cereal.  From here on out, it's just going to get worse! We don't plan on introducing any other foods for another month (even though she is totally ready! She watches us eat and knows what food is.). Sometimes when she now toots, you can smell it when you are close to her.  There have been many toots that I would swear had substance behind, but sure enough, her diaper is just wet.  Oh and because you want to know Bean's pooping schedule, she has gone from pooping multiple times a day to pooping just once, maybe twice.  You go girl.

(I loves this photo, not just becuase of that little cutie, but because it's all washed out from SUNSHINE!! The weather is finally starting to show signs of spring.  Last week, we even pulled out the stroller and went for a walk when Daddy got home from work.  We tried to explain to Bean that this is what the real world looks like - since she usually is in her car seat, under a blanket.  I don't think she believed us, though.  It snowed the next day and we went back into hibernation.)

(Another new thing - Bean can pull her pacifier out and attempts to put it back in.  A couple of times, she's actually put it back in properly, but usually just chews on it.  Yesterday, she took her paci out of her mouth and put it correctly into mine.  I guess that's a sign she likes to share??)