Nola is 11 Months Old! (almost)

Nola turns 11 months old tomorrow! Eeee, that means only 1 month until her birthday! I decided to go with a rainbow theme and let me tell you, it's hard to find rainbow birthday party supplies! I'm pretty excited about making a rainbow cake and I've got until Oct 30 to get everything together, so it should be fine.

We decided to go to Las Vegas for 3 nights Oct 3-Oct 6 because my friend Kristy and her hubby John will be there for a conference. The girls will be spending 2 days with grandma Dorothea, 1 day with Aunt Allison, and 1 day with Jamie. I would have rather gone on the weekend, but we have a mandatory meeting for Nola's dedication at church on the 2nd. Then we'll be heading up to Phoenix so we will only have a 4 hour drive on Monday to get to Vegas. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Las Vegas? It would only make sense because I'm so naturally drawn to all things sparkly and shiny right?! It's practically a whole city made of glitter! :D Kristy and I are going to see Le Reve which is an acrobatic water show. I saw some of it on Regis and Kelly earlier this year and vowed that if I ever went back to Vegas, I'd be going to see that show. Our hotel is super cheap (got a good deal online) but the shows are always expensive so we're going to try to get tickets the day of and see if they're cheaper. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It will be nice to spend some time with Tony away from the kiddos too. We've been having a bit of a rough time lately which me not feeling too well and more responsibility falling on Tony at work and at home, it's just been more stressful than normal.

I've been doing more playdates which is always fun. I find that the kids are (generally) much better behaved when we're out of the house. There's more to look at, a change of pace, and sometimes I even get to talk to adults! However, a few weeks ago I met up with a friend from young marrieds for lunch with the girls and Nola (who's normally the calm one) screamed and cried pretty much the ENTIRE time. It was maddening! I just kept apologizing and saying 'really, she's not normally like this!' I had no idea what was wrong either which is the most frustrating thing in the world. I fed her, she screamed. I held her, she screamed. I gave her toys, she screamed. Impossible.

I got certified in first aid and cpr yesterday. It makes me feel a little more confident about a) having a pool and b) having a child who chokes a lot and c) living in a region with rattle snakes and scorpions. Turns out scorpions aren't nearly as dangerous as I thought they were, which makes me feel less paranoid.

I made the girls picture appointments for Friday. I also made an appt to get my hair cut. I'm kind of nervous, but I think it needs something to make it bearable while the short hairs are growing out. This is what I'm going for:But obviously my hair is straight and I could NEVER stand having my bangs that long.

Oh I should say that Embry's hand, foot, and mouth disease is all gone. Has been for a while, but it was a bummer for her. Tony got it too, but only very very mildly and for about a day. I swear he's got the best immune system ever. Embry was quite miserable while she had it though, not fun for any of us. Nola (and I) never got it, so WOOHOO!

As far as my health goes, I started taking probiotics which I think are really helping my tummy troubles *yay*! My back is the same-ish. I've been having more headaches, blah. There is a very troubling pain in my right groin area (like the inside of my hip maybe) when I stand up or walk or sit or lay...so pretty much any change in position will get it going. Maybe I should go to the orthopedic guy again, but I'd really rather not. It could just go away on its own, but then again, maybe not. I keep telling Tony it feels like my crotch is gonna break.

A Recap

Nola turned 10 months old on Aug 26, which is just unbelievable to me! I know I was kind of out of it for a bit there, but it really seems like she can't possibly be that old yet. We finally got signed up for the next baby dedication at church, so we'll be doing that for Nola on Oct 9. That happens to be the day before my birthday, so I think it's reason enough for a party! :)

Then she'll be a year old on Oct 26, time for another party! Then 2 weeks later Embry will be 3, time for another party! I think I'm going to do a rainbow theme for Nola's and of course Dora and Diego for Embry and we'll definitely have a jumping castle for that one because Embry's been talking about it for about 4 months now. She's obsessed. I have no idea where she gets that trait from. ;)

Embry completely regressed with the potty thing a few weeks ago. It is maddening. She is now getting better again, but she was peeing in her pants (which forced us to go back to pullups ie $$$) pretty much every time she peed. Now she's doing better, which means she's had the same pull ups on since this morning without incident. She's peeing in them overnight now too though which is really disappointing because she had been dry at night for at least 6 months. Ah well, I'm sure it's just a part of toddlerhood that must be explored before moving onto the next stage. Lucky for me though she never pooed anywhere but in the potty and is now even using the big potty so we don't have to do that yucky poop transport from little potty to big potty. That can make even the strongest of stomachs turn.

We went to Phoenix over labor day weekend. It was super fun but also utterly exhausting as always. Nola woke up screaming twice the first night which was extremely stressful for me because I hadn't gone to bed till midnight (I was up playing games) and she was sleeping in a pack n play in Allison's room with Allison and Micah so I was really worried that her death cries would wake up the other baby. Anyhow, I fed her both times and she went back to sleep. The second night she was totally fine, so I'm not sure what he problem was, but she got over it pretty quick. We went to the Sea Life Aquarium in Tempe the first day and met up with Tony's mom, Allison, and Micah there. I had expected something really sucky, but it far exceeded my expectations. Embry LOVED it! She got to touch the starfish and stick her head in the tank bubbles and watch all the different sea creatures, she thought it was just great. I had fun too! Tony's brother Stefan came over that night and we had dinner. We got to see my friend Jamie while we were there and also Tony's friend from high School and her husband. Oh and we went to downtown Tempe with our friends from young marrieds who just moved up there. Embry got to play with Noah and it was just the cutest thing. :D Makes my heart happy.

MOPS started this past Tuesday. It felt so comfortable being back in that room with all the other moms that I share so much in common with. Although I have to say, cutting the time down to 2 hours really made it feel rushed for me. Maybe it was just because it was the first meeting and it won't feel rushed when there is a speaker and the regular layout, but it seemed like a lot to cram into 2 hours. We did squash books for a craft which I actually didn't do a whole lot of prep for at all, that was my partner in crafts, so woohoo! Now we have 3 crafts left for the year and I'm halfway prepped for the next one, just need to cut out some stuff on the cricut and we'll be all set. I'm also making the new baby onesies. I made about 10 to start off with, 5 for boys and 5 for girls, so I'm ahead of the game in that regard.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe it's been almost a whole month since I last blogged, yikes! I guess I'll do bullet points so I don't have to think of transitions :)

Nola:

• she's crawling like a pro.
  
• Her favorite chew toy is any cord she can find.
  
• She's toppled one of the surround sound speakers and the tv tray over on top of herself, but she's easily soothed so neither was a big deal.
  
• She enjoys going to the recycling bin over and over again to take out dangerous objects like soda cans and plastic wrap.
  
• She has the cutest smile EVER! I just want to eat her face with those big cheekies and little baby teeth!
• We found out she hates bubble wrap being popped near her. Embry found this quite enjoyable, but Nola was very upset so the bubble wrap is currently in a 'time out' in the laundry room.
  
• She got the two front side bottom teeth about 2 weeks ago.
• She pulls up to her knees on everything, but has only pulled up to her feet 3 times that I can think of. Once on Embry's purple chair, once on the toy table, and once in her crib (which was super cute and I wish I had my camera to take a picture).
  
• Her most common 'words' are 'Ga', 'nnnnnga', 'hoyuhl' (both she and Embry made this same sound), 'eh eh eh eh eh' (like a machine gun), and 'udl udl udl udl' (like a wookie).
  
• We started giving her a sippy cup with water like a month ago and she really doesn't understand that she needs to suck on it. She just bites it and well, that's about it.
• She's started taking 2 solid naps each day. One around 9am and then another around noon. I like it A LOT.
  
• It has gotten so much easier to feed her which is a humongous blessing! We give her almost all stage 3 foods and don't have to put any of them in the food processor first. Occasionally she'll gag, but hasn't thrown up from it in about a month. She even eats yogurt with chunks in it and gnaws on french fries etc.
  
• However, she throws up 1-2 times a week. Like her whole jar of food and her whole bottle and it smells and it's really gross. She'll be all fussy and then she'll throw up and then she'll be super happy. So I'm going to have to ask the ped about that at her 1 year check up.
  

Embry:

• I love her, but she sure does know how to push my buttons!
  
• She moves at the speed of slow.
• Unless she's with her friends and then she's like a tornado.
• She hates naptime, but she still stays in her room for 2 hours/day. Sometimes she takes a nap, sometimes she plays, but either way, I sleep.
  
• She's definitely started to test her boundaries.
  

Me:

• I'm dang tired.
• The neurosurgeon said I have 2 months to decide whether to get the kyphoplasty done. He found a different bone glue that is more like bone rather than super rigid, but he'd rather not use it since it hasn't had any long term studies etc.
  
• My back has been hurting more again. It's somewhat ok when I'm up and going, but after I sit or lay down for any amount of time, it's pretty bad.
  
• The hair that fell out is now about 1-2 inches long and it's driving me nuts. I'm thinking of getting my hair cut short just so it will blend in better. That's what I did last time this happened, but I look even fatter with short hair.
  
• I am fairly certain I'll be joining a gym within the next week. I need to do something about my body, it's gross and it's affecting my mentality in a bad way. We'll see how my bones feel when I try to work out, I hope it all goes well.
  
• I was really sick last week. I hated it. I had a lupus headache (like a migraine) and pretty much couldn't move from my bed for a 16 hour period. I had a headache for 2 days before that, but not severe, then I went to take my nap and it just got horrible.
  
• My stomach has been messed up for about a month. It's like it was before I got pregnant with Embry. It sucks, but maybe it will help me lose weight?!