Getting out of town.

Dave and I leave tomorrow for 4 nights/5 days. We have been away for a weekend and one additional night since February of 2013, needless to say, we are really excited, but are also sad to leave the kids. I feel like I have been prepping for this weekend away for a few weeks, Courtney came with me to Kindermusic and to Miss Jaspers' two weeks ago in order to get the hang of things. I know she will do great, but I still worry about the kids, mostly because know I will miss them so much.

We are heading to Montreal to celebrate our 4th anniversary. Below is the letter I composed to Coutney. I realize it is full of random/boring info, but I thought it would be fun to look back on it in years to come, so on the blog it goes :).

Typical day routines are as follows:

 

Greta gets up around 7:30, change her diaper and then feed her breakfast, offer her a bottle after breakfast. Talk and play with her until Sully gets up.

Sully gets up around 8am. If he is not up by 8am on Thursday and Friday, wake him so he has enough time to adjust to the day before going to Miss Jaspers'. Bring him down, serve him breakfast, he sometimes needs to be reminded to stay focused on eating, otherwise he may take forever to finish the meal.

Leave for Miss Jaspers' by 8:55 (use blue Patagonia bag as his diaper bag, make sure he has a couple of diapers and wipes in there). I usually leave Greta in the car, but lock the car and use the automatic start to restart while you are in the house.

Bring Greta home and put her down for a nap (about 2 hours from when she woke up). Rock her with a bottle.

Pick Sully up by 12 from Miss Jaspers, and serve them lunch right when you get home.

Play and prep for naps at 1pm. You know this routine. If Greta naps late in the morning, she wont be ready for her nap until about 2 hours from when she woke up. 

Sully should be up by 4, Im sure Greta will be up by then. Offer them snacks after their naps or do dinner at 5. If they have snacks, they will be able to eat dinner later. Greta may want a bottle after dinner if you eat at 5.

Greta is usually ready for bed by 7:15. Let Sully watch a show on our bed while you do this, give her a bottle and put her down when she is ready. If the house feels cool, put her in a sleep sack, otherwise, put her in the crib alone (ie. no blankets, stuffed animals, pillow etc.).

Sully should go down between 8-8:30. You know the drill on this, too.

If Greta wakes in the night, let her try to settle herself for 5-10 minutes before going in. Depending on how she has been, medicate her and then offer her a bottle. It may be easiest to have some water ready to make some formula. She has slept through 5 of the last 7 nights, so Im hopeful that she is a rockstar for you, but realistically, there will prolly be at least one night that she wakes up for you. 

We do baths every other night, but you can do them more or less if you want. They will be due for tubbies on Thursday and Saturday. Sully gets the Aveeno shampoo and Greta gets the CeraVe soap (because of her skin issues).

 

There is nothing planned on Saturday morning, so if you want to let Sully sleep in, you could, but if you have something planned, make sure you wake him an hour ahead of time so he can adjust to the day.

 

Meal ideas:

Breakfast for Sully is always 2 pancakes or waffles, he sometimes likes them 'burr' or cold, but usually prefers them hot. I think if he is starving he wants them right away, no matter what the temp is. He also needs some sort of fruit with this. 

Breakfast for Greta is some sort of fruit, cut up into small pieces and maybe cut up pancake, maybe yogurt or dried cereal. Whatever is on hand and is quick and easy.

Lunch/dinner for both: 'tacos' is what Sully calls them. They are cheesy roll ups. I roll up cheese in a tortilla and microwave it. Cut Greta's into small pieces. Usually Sully wants his things 'cup' or cut into smallish pieces when he see's Greta's cut. Other ideas are chicken nuggets, hot dogs (make sure you over cut Greta's!) bagels, cheese cubes, frozen veggies in freezer could be prepared, buttered noodles, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, etc. Always with a fruit option. There is no limit on fuit for the kids. Sully can have an oreo ('yoreo') if he wants. As you know, we are not real strict with food/activities, so Im sure whatever you come up with will be great.

 

Meds: 

Sully gets tylenol 5ml or ibuprofen 1.875ml as needed. If you are continuously medicating, make sure to alternate them. 

Greta gets tylenol 2.5ml or ibuprofen 1.25.

Greta has been pretty good with her skin issues, but if you notice a flare up then you can use the prescribed ointments. The hydrocortisone (2.5%)  can be used on her scalp and the Mometazole can be used anywhere lower than the shoulders (except armpits and groin). Go easy on the Mometazole as it is super strong, we try to only use it in extreme cases. If she gets raw chapped cheeks, use Aquafor, Vaseline, CeraVe cream, or Cetaphil cream before she goes down at night. I will show you where they are, we try to put them around so they are handy in a moments notice.  

Diaper creams for both of them as needed.

TV:

Channel 100-106 are cartoons, On Demand for Dora on Nick Jr. and Micky is on Disney Jr.

There are a few movies. It's sometimes fun to watch one with Sully after Greta goes to bed. The TV has to be on HDMI3 in order to work with the blueray player, the TV has to be on HDMI2 for the TV to work.

 

Ideas:

Arrowhead Park (East 26th Street) There are corn cobs on the counter to feed the ducks with.

Washington Pavilion- Kirby Science Center

Butterfly House

Outdoor Campus

Zoo

Applefest       

Kenzie:

One and one third cup of food in the morning and at night. Put her out for kids meals, it makes for a much less hectic experience. 

She gets one proin in the morning and at night, and also one estrogen pill daily. 

Make sure you pack a sippy cup with water and some snacks for every outing. 

When you get home, Sully likes to play in the car for a few minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on him and that the e-brake is on. One way to bribe him out sooner is to let him crawl into the way back and then let him count to three and jump to you. I usually let him jump 2-3 times and then let him push the button to close the back, and follow that up with a high-5. 

Greta will always find something to put in her mouth, and we are still working on going backwards down the stairs. She is so busy! 

Emergency Numbers:

Mary Ellen 605.376.3446

Kirsten Biondi  605.351.4762

Maggie (although she is out of town) 605.261.1821

Dr Sam 605.336.2140

Brad Weber (contractor) 605.231.8801

Breast milk guidelines:

Once the frozen milk is thawed, it must be consumed within 24 hours, so try to keep that in mind. Combine milk with equal parts of formula in order to make it last as long as possible (you will run out before I get home, when that happens, switch her to straight formula). Do not combine bottles, if there is an ounce or so left and you don't think she will finish it within the allotted 24 hours, toss it. We can talk more about this tomorrow morning. 

Gosh, what else?! 

We are available...call or txt for anything, really! Do not hesitate. 

If you have any friends come over to help you at any time, please make sure to keep track so we can compensate them appropriately.

You are one in a million, thanks for this weekend!  

Greta and the baby Buddha at Grandma's.

Apple fest fun.

Sweet Sully.

Typical walk around the park. Sully runs or jumps the
entire time while Greta pulls herself up to watch him.

At the Polo match meeting Pipestone. 

Greta and mama.

Storage garage cleaning with the sentimental sort.

Dave rented a storage garage when his parents' house was bought, then later demolished by Sandford Health. It was easier to move the house stuff there, rather than go through it at that time as he was also dealing with moving his mom. Unfortunately, he did this on his own as both his dad and sister were already gone. Fast forward eight years, a couple of moves and a couple of kids later, the time had come. It had definitely turned in to a catch all space for stuff when there was no where else to put it.

We started the project about six weeks ago. Courtney (our number 1 babysitter/lifesaver) would come over during nap time and we would change into our dingiest clothes and head over. Fortunately, the storage garage, the dumpster (at Culligan), and Good Will are within about a one mile radius. Dave would sort while I made runs as needed. We purged so much. There were the funny, no brainers, like a plunger, but there were also boxes that required much more love and attention, like cards from Juile, or notes Helen had written when her mind was still good.

Like Pete the Cat says, 'buttons come and buttons go,' although I recognize it is not always that easy. I do understand and appreciate some level of sentiment. In fact, I am even a bit sentimental at times, although I hate to admit that. For example, I urged Dave to get rid of a holey shirt for a long time, not getting why he hadn't purged it. I then looked though some photos and realized it was the shirt he wore for the births of both kids. I layed off.

We are finally done with the storage garage project. It was great to sweep it out and close the door. Yes, two full carloads came home to our garage which, by the way, will have to be emptied in two months for the next phase of renovation...what are we going to do with all of this stuff!!? I get anxiety just thinking about it. Everything will find it's place, eventually.

Mid August, early in the project. 

Early September.

Mid September

Mid September.

The final day, Sept 15th.

#schocksabouttopop

Lauren, Sarah, and I honored Amy last weekend with a baby shower. She is due to have a baby girl in late October. We had a blast planning. It was great to brainstorm with the help of Pinterest and then to see it all come together in real life. We all prepped some sort of food and then divvied up the decorations and games. Overall it came together really well. It was fun to see the regulars, as well as meet some of Amy's friends and coworkers. We are anxiously awaiting the birth of baby girl Schock!

Baby shower instagram hashtag, our crafty guestbook/scrapbook idea. 

Sparkling lemonade. 

Fabric banners. 

Our fabulous afternoon appetizer spread. 

Guest of honor. 

Guest of honor with the Connelly ladies. 

Hostesses and Amy. 

Wrapping up summer.

The last couple of weeks have been super busy between Dave's call schedule and taking advantage of every little outing we could get in while the weather has been nice. It has been tiring, but really great, we have been bowling, a trip to Okoboji, several trips to the park, the Farmer's Market, and German fest (where Sully enjoyed his first corn dog), also Kindermusic and Miss Jaspers has resumed, who ever said being a stay-at-home mom was easy?! Sully is at such a fun age, we have so much fun watching him have so much fun. Greta goes with the flow, usually with a big smile on her face.

I also had the privilege of taking ACLS (advance cardiac life support) certification through work. It is something I dread every time the renewal is due, then drag my feet, and then scramble to complete as it is a job requirement. Between studying, coordinating child care for two days in a row (thank God for Courtney, my mom, and Maggie), going to class, and taking the test (written and running a mega code), Im exhausted. I am happy to have passed and to have it behind me. Hopefully next time I don't drag my feet as much and I recertify before my certification expires. Here's to hoping.

We have had lots of house activity. The plumber has replaced all of the pipes below the house with PVC, the electric company and the electrician have updated the electrical from 100amps to 400amps, the electric line was buried, and the entire perimeter of the basement was broken up and drain tile was placed. We also had our upper deck removed due to some rotting wood. The roof guys were here today fixing a few soft spots, we hope to have a new deck in the next couple of weeks. We are also having a new railing made for that deck. We have a photo of the house from the 1930's, so we are replacing what was there with a railing which will match the original. Wow, what a project. We are almost to the rebuilding phase, and couldn't be more excited!

Lots of photos to catch up on, they are in no particular order. Enjoy!

After nap playtime in Greta's crib. 

GG and Anna in Okoboji. 

Sully and Greta. 

Sully and Jeff on the little boat. I think he almost
fell asleep. 

Date night at Parker's. 

McKennan Park walk. 

Sully teaching Greta a new trick.  

Feeding the ducks at Arrowhead Park. 

Sweet Greta. 

Scores are as follows:
Suzie: 52
Dave: 62.
I still got it!

Learning to bowl. 

Goodnight kisses from Greta.