Friday, April 24, 2009
Amaya's Potty Chair
A month or so ago, we bought Amaya a potty chair. Now before anyone gets too excited, we're nowhere close to getting Amaya potty trained. It's just that every time anyone uses the bathroom, she tags along, so we thought this would give her something to do. She's been very interested in it and can now sit on it by herself without one of us putting her on it. Amaya can also say potty and poopy, so we'd like to think we're in the beginning stages. For now, we're content with her playing with it, putting her babies on it, and opening and closing the seat. But, what I wouldn't give to not have to change her diaper anymore!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy!
Today is my Mommy and Daddy's 4th wedding anniversary. I'm not exactly sure what this means, except that I get to play with my Grandma and Grandpa Horning tonight! I love it when they come over because it usually means that I get spoiled. Grandparents are great, aren't they?
Mommy is busy getting ready for our trip to Nebraska, so that's why I'm blogging today. I'm so excited to meet Hope and to play with Joshua, Jordan, and Hannah. My cousin Hannah, just had a birthday - on Easter - so she'll get to open up a present from us and Hope gets to open up a present too, but maybe I can help her. Mommy and I went shopping a couple weeks ago for Hope and got to pick out all sorts of my favorite things!
We've been spending a lot of time outside with the weather being so nice. The only problem is that I don't want to come back inside. Mommy is washing my coat for the second time this week. I like to play in the dirt and the grass, so I get a little dirty. I'm hoping that in between packing, doing laundry, washing dishes, and wrapping presents, Mommy and I can go outside today.
Mommy and Daddy got a sad e-mail this week. Our neighbor, Esther - the one who lived across the street and made the best chocolate chip cookies ever - died on Monday. Mommy and Daddy knew that she was very sick, but it still came as a shock.
Well, I should go help Mommy fold some laundry and help pack some of my toys and books. Bye-bye - Amaya
Mommy is busy getting ready for our trip to Nebraska, so that's why I'm blogging today. I'm so excited to meet Hope and to play with Joshua, Jordan, and Hannah. My cousin Hannah, just had a birthday - on Easter - so she'll get to open up a present from us and Hope gets to open up a present too, but maybe I can help her. Mommy and I went shopping a couple weeks ago for Hope and got to pick out all sorts of my favorite things!
We've been spending a lot of time outside with the weather being so nice. The only problem is that I don't want to come back inside. Mommy is washing my coat for the second time this week. I like to play in the dirt and the grass, so I get a little dirty. I'm hoping that in between packing, doing laundry, washing dishes, and wrapping presents, Mommy and I can go outside today.
Mommy and Daddy got a sad e-mail this week. Our neighbor, Esther - the one who lived across the street and made the best chocolate chip cookies ever - died on Monday. Mommy and Daddy knew that she was very sick, but it still came as a shock.
Well, I should go help Mommy fold some laundry and help pack some of my toys and books. Bye-bye - Amaya
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Weaned
Sadly enough, last night I put Amaya to bed without nursing her. For the past few weeks, she's becoming increasingly more distracted while I nurse her and hasn't had much interest. I figured the day would be approaching soon enough, and we decided that we'd start the week off sans breast-milk. From what I've now experienced, weaning Amaya was harder emotionally for me than physically. And as expected, Amaya did just fine last night. She even fell asleep before her Lullaby CD got to song #3! Looking back at those first few weeks of nursing her, I remember cringing every time Steve said, "I think she's hungry." I was tired and sore and never imagined that I could stick with it, although now I'm glad I did. But realizing that our little baby isn't such a baby anymore is very bittersweet.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Recap of our Week
Once again, it's been a very full week for us and unfortunately, all three of us have had varying degrees of a nasty cold that I'm suspecting we picked up in the nursery.
Nursery Duty: Once a month we volunteer in the nursery. Our church has three nurseries available for children under the age of 2. The Bluebird nursery is for babies 6 week old to about 13 months; the Bunnies group is for babies 13 months - 18 months and the Butterflies are for toddlers 18 months - 24 months (or thereabouts). The past two weekends, we've been scheduled to work in the Butterfly nursery. We usually bring Amaya to whatever nursery we work in because it's easier on her and easier on the other volunteers. Our first week was a little bit of challenge because we had several toddlers experiencing stranger anxiety, but eventually we got everyone calmed down. This past week went SO MUCH BETTER! At one point, we had almost everyone sitting down at the tables eating a snack and we had a lot less tears! It's fun to watch Amaya interact with the others kids, but because she's a good 4-8 months younger than everyone else, sometimes she gets a little overwhelmed. It's amazing how just a few short months makes a world of difference.
Dermatology Get Fit/Biggest Loser Challenge: My work department started a friendly competition a few weeks ago in a Get Fit Challenge. Our nurse manager is the captain of one of our teams and we have log our activity each week. At the end of 13 weeks, whichever team has logged in the most hours wins. This weekend, our group went bowling, although I'm not sure that I burned very many calories. Steve and Amaya came with and Amaya had a blast watching the flashing lights, touching the balls, walking up and down the hallway, and being held by my co-workers. Steve bowled a 150 something and I didn't break 100 - maybe we'll do better next time. The other competition is the Biggest Loser Individual Challenge. All we have to do is weigh ourselves at home on the same scale, and at the end of 13 weeks, we report our starting weight and weight lost. I've lost 6 pounds in the past 2 1/2 weeks - definitely not Biggest Loser results, but I'm definitely happy with the progress - and I'm FINALLY at my pre-pregnancy weight!
House: Steve has been working on getting all of our paper-work ready to refinance our house. Eventually, when Steve has to do his internship during the third year of graduate school, he'll have to cut back his hours again. With interest rates as low as they are and receiving some advice from Steve's dad (a realtor), we thought we'd jump at the opportunity. We locked into a rate of 4.5% and will be saving about 160 dollars per month. We'll plan on paying our current mortgage payment to reduce the principal and hope to get our house paid off in 20 years instead of 30.
We've been in our current house for 2 years now - where did that time go? We continue to love our neighborhood, but recently found out our dear neighbors across the street have moved up to the cities. Herb and Esther welcomed us into the neighborhood with open arms and always managed to give us an occasional batch of her famous chocolate-chip cookies. Steve and I have always enjoyed looking at other homes and with Steve's dad being a realtor, we frequently attend his open houses. This weekend, we looked at a house priced at over a million dollars. After walking through the entire house, we were disappointed. Even with the amenities, it still wasn't home. We'd have to spend thousands of dollars to redo counter-tops, floors, the lay-out etc. We looked at another house in the $600,000 price range, and while we loved the house - it didn't have much of a backyard. When we pulled up into our driveway, I was glad to be home. We'll miss Herb and Esther, but we still know all of neighbors on our cul-de-sac. It's a quiet neighborhood, kid-friendly, close to our church, close to our family. Our house is just the right size - not too big, not too small, it may not have a whirlpool tub or sauna or granite countertops, but it's home.
Maggots: My department at work has done maggot debridement therapy on necrotic ulcers for a few years now, but because of my maternity leave and part-time hours I haven't been able to assist with this treatment until this week. It may sound gross and disgusting, but trust my squeamish stomach, it's not all that bad. These little buggers work really hard at cleaning up difficult to treat ulcers and don't get enough credit for the work they do. Unfortunately, it's a very difficult procedure getting them placed on the ulcers and contained. My co-worker and I spent about 2 hours tracing the ulcers and developing templates for the "cage" to contain the maggots and then spent another 2 1/2 hours placing the maggots on the ulcers. It's a time consuming process, but well worth it in the end.
That's our week in a nutshell... this week shouldn't be too busy. Steve doesn't have school this week because of Easter, so Amaya and I will enjoy having him here.
Nursery Duty: Once a month we volunteer in the nursery. Our church has three nurseries available for children under the age of 2. The Bluebird nursery is for babies 6 week old to about 13 months; the Bunnies group is for babies 13 months - 18 months and the Butterflies are for toddlers 18 months - 24 months (or thereabouts). The past two weekends, we've been scheduled to work in the Butterfly nursery. We usually bring Amaya to whatever nursery we work in because it's easier on her and easier on the other volunteers. Our first week was a little bit of challenge because we had several toddlers experiencing stranger anxiety, but eventually we got everyone calmed down. This past week went SO MUCH BETTER! At one point, we had almost everyone sitting down at the tables eating a snack and we had a lot less tears! It's fun to watch Amaya interact with the others kids, but because she's a good 4-8 months younger than everyone else, sometimes she gets a little overwhelmed. It's amazing how just a few short months makes a world of difference.
Dermatology Get Fit/Biggest Loser Challenge: My work department started a friendly competition a few weeks ago in a Get Fit Challenge. Our nurse manager is the captain of one of our teams and we have log our activity each week. At the end of 13 weeks, whichever team has logged in the most hours wins. This weekend, our group went bowling, although I'm not sure that I burned very many calories. Steve and Amaya came with and Amaya had a blast watching the flashing lights, touching the balls, walking up and down the hallway, and being held by my co-workers. Steve bowled a 150 something and I didn't break 100 - maybe we'll do better next time. The other competition is the Biggest Loser Individual Challenge. All we have to do is weigh ourselves at home on the same scale, and at the end of 13 weeks, we report our starting weight and weight lost. I've lost 6 pounds in the past 2 1/2 weeks - definitely not Biggest Loser results, but I'm definitely happy with the progress - and I'm FINALLY at my pre-pregnancy weight!
House: Steve has been working on getting all of our paper-work ready to refinance our house. Eventually, when Steve has to do his internship during the third year of graduate school, he'll have to cut back his hours again. With interest rates as low as they are and receiving some advice from Steve's dad (a realtor), we thought we'd jump at the opportunity. We locked into a rate of 4.5% and will be saving about 160 dollars per month. We'll plan on paying our current mortgage payment to reduce the principal and hope to get our house paid off in 20 years instead of 30.
We've been in our current house for 2 years now - where did that time go? We continue to love our neighborhood, but recently found out our dear neighbors across the street have moved up to the cities. Herb and Esther welcomed us into the neighborhood with open arms and always managed to give us an occasional batch of her famous chocolate-chip cookies. Steve and I have always enjoyed looking at other homes and with Steve's dad being a realtor, we frequently attend his open houses. This weekend, we looked at a house priced at over a million dollars. After walking through the entire house, we were disappointed. Even with the amenities, it still wasn't home. We'd have to spend thousands of dollars to redo counter-tops, floors, the lay-out etc. We looked at another house in the $600,000 price range, and while we loved the house - it didn't have much of a backyard. When we pulled up into our driveway, I was glad to be home. We'll miss Herb and Esther, but we still know all of neighbors on our cul-de-sac. It's a quiet neighborhood, kid-friendly, close to our church, close to our family. Our house is just the right size - not too big, not too small, it may not have a whirlpool tub or sauna or granite countertops, but it's home.
Maggots: My department at work has done maggot debridement therapy on necrotic ulcers for a few years now, but because of my maternity leave and part-time hours I haven't been able to assist with this treatment until this week. It may sound gross and disgusting, but trust my squeamish stomach, it's not all that bad. These little buggers work really hard at cleaning up difficult to treat ulcers and don't get enough credit for the work they do. Unfortunately, it's a very difficult procedure getting them placed on the ulcers and contained. My co-worker and I spent about 2 hours tracing the ulcers and developing templates for the "cage" to contain the maggots and then spent another 2 1/2 hours placing the maggots on the ulcers. It's a time consuming process, but well worth it in the end.
That's our week in a nutshell... this week shouldn't be too busy. Steve doesn't have school this week because of Easter, so Amaya and I will enjoy having him here.
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