Sleep who needs it!

This morning I was super excited to get two hours of amazing sleep as I took over Robert's side of the bed at 5:30am. Ellie was sound asleep, Hadley was in her bed and after making sure my alarm was set for 7:30am, I rolled over... then after a little rumbling by Robert, but not much... Ellie was stirring, then Hadley was brought in by Robert and I sighed. I was able to get them both back to sleep as I was sandwiched in the middle. Then I remembered it was Leif's big day today, and I couldn't sleep. I knew that at that moment Leif, Maggie and Jay were all getting ready for his TOF repair. So I got up, I read her CB post from their preop day and I posted on CB my prayers for Leif...

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Please Lord watch over Leif today while he's in surgery and after. Please give Maggie and Jay (and the rest of Leif's troop) patience while they wait and strength for the recovery process. Lord, please give wisdom and calmness to all the doctors, nurses and staff at Amplatz.

I know today we will be rejoicing!
We are thinking about you all today.
We know that you are so close to putting the period at the end of this chapter.
Stay strong!

So today... I am not going to complain, I am not going to be grumpy, I am not going to be sad, I am not going to do anything but rejoice in what I have, I am going to be happy for everything that is positive in my life and remember that the negative things, (which at the moment are low), will soon be over and most likely a lesson learned!

Where does the time go?

Right now Hadley and I are sitting down, finally! We are watching Tangled. That is Hadley's favorite movie and I would have to say it is probably mine too! It is full of great graphics as well as great music. I also love to watch Toy Story 3.

Ellie turned 10 months old two days ago. She is on the verge of walking. She can take a single step from one piece of furniture to another. She still has just two bottom teeth. I can see a top front tooth but it hasn't poked through yet. I think it causes her pain and she wakes up because of it, almost every hour. She basically sleeps in our bed. She goes to bed in her crib, usually wakes after an hour. Then I lay with her in bed and she usually falls asleep right away, to my dismay she loves our bed. She loves the warmth and the softness. She pretty much stays in there for the rest of the night.

Cute story... this morning, after Ellie woke up every hour through out the night, she stayed asleep through a diaper change at 5:20am, then getting packed into her car sear, then a car ride to Grandmas house, the in's and out's of the car and whatnot, until 7:30am. I could believe it... she was soooo cute. Robert and I just melted when we looked at her, asleep, while we were both awake for work. So she slept from 3:30am until 7:30am... don't we all sleep best in the early morning? I know I do.

Update:

Robert: Working currently at NPP, his days are from 6am to 4:30pm. He is home everyday at 4:45pm. He has been playing basketball on Sunday's with Daryl. He has also spent some time on the ice. He took a few guys from work fishing last weekend. They did okay, as few weekends before that he caught a ton of fish and we had a fish fry. He is dreaming of a vacation and new carpet for our upstairs. He is hoping that maybe our tax return can pay for one of those. It will probably be the new carpet.

Me: I am in school again. I am in Microbiology and Lifespan Psychology. I drive to Brainerd Wednesday and Friday mornings. I cut back at the Messenger, I currently work Mondays and Wednesday afternoons. I also started at MLHS as a NAR in Long Term Care. I will be status 5, (help pool and on-call), only working 4 shifts a month. I can pick up more if I want to but my plan is to just do the four shifts. Currently I am on my third orientation day and I had my first day on the floor today. I look forward to learning more about the healthcare industry. I also got my letter that I get to start the LPN program in the fall... so at that time, I will be a full-time student and I will probably have to give up the Messenger completely.

Hadley: Enjoying being a big sister and playing at Grandma's. She is almost fully potty trained, down to accidents once a week or so. The only time we have more then that is when we are really out of our routine. A few weekends ago we went to Tom and Jean's in Rosemount and we had a couple accidents, probably because Mommy and Daddy were a little sidetracked and because it was somewhere new. Hadley also goes to ECFE on Tuesday mornings from 8:30a-10:15a. Today Uncle Andrew brought her to school and she thought that was pretty cool.

So I guess I have a pretty good excuse for not posting for almost two weeks. I am just trying to wrap my head around school and this new job. It has been very busy around here, I even cried last week because of it... but I know that when I am done with this journey, it will all be worth it. I don't want to wish time away, but I can't wait to be an RN!

Oh and Ellie is up already... It was just a light nap, hopefully she will go to bed for the night soon, she is a little crabby... when she doesn't want to play by herself, it is time for bed!

Ellie and Elmo

The Girls

I can't believe the holidays are over. Yesterday was the official holiday for New Years... It was Monday. Robert had to work. I spent the day with Hadley and Ellie. We didn't have any plans. We just hung out. Ellie, is getting teeth, I think!? All I know is that the girl doesn't sleep. I spent most of the day rocking her to sleep. I even posted a FB comment to the effect, reminding myself that there will be days for laundry and cleaning. But, days to rock your precious baby cruise by. So I tried to keep the anxiety in me in check.

Ellie is 9 months old and is into everything. She wants to cruise around furniture and stand all the time. She is not content just sitting around. She wants to look, pull up, knock down, torture Hadley and eat dog food. She is curious to explore the world around her now that she can crawl. She is beginning to understand the word "no." It is used mainly when she heads towards the dog dishes. When she hears it she just crawls faster. Then I rush to pick her up and she kinda shakes her body and her head at the same time. She knows I am pulling her away and she doesn't like it. She also now sucks her thumb, I think thumb sucking is cute, however, I haven't been down the road of stopping it...
Lately she sucks it when she is tired. She will plop her left thumb in her mouth and lay her head down. But let me remind you that she doesn't sleep... so... it is all an act. I still have to rock her. Although I have tried the last two nights to lay her down for bed and stay by her crib side. I have given in each night after 30 minutes of ...crying, trying to sleep, pulling herself up...I just grab her and rock her. I feel like maybe I am accomplishing a sense of crib likeness. Who knows...

Ellie also has mastered the art of waving. Super cute... And, we are working on fun things like, "So Big," and she giggles to peek a boo.

Hadley is 3 years old. She is a creative little gal. She loves to play with her babies and her kitchen. Everyday she makes food for us and her imaginary cousin Joe. Even though Joe really exsists and now he is everywhere even more because we saw him for Christmas as well as went to the cabin. So I have been trying to tell her she can play with other friends too. We will see, I have read that it is okay to have imaginary friends... they inspire creativity... Hadley probably doesn't need anymore but who knows. She also loves to play with her new puzzles as well as look at her new books.

She decides on a drop of a hat what she wants to do, so mood swings come and go. We have gotten better with socks. She will wear them to go outside. But the minute she gets into a house she takes off her shoes and socks. She doesn't like the seam. She also doesn't like to wear her mittens. But, she will wear them if she plays outside, but not for car rides from here to there. Let's see, she is very determined to do things by herself. Tonight she took her shirt off the hard way... got her one arm out the top and then her other and them shimmied out of it like a skirt. Her favorite color is still pink and she loves to eat salads. Her favorite dressing is ranch and she enjoys tomatoes and cucumbers. She also has been doing better at the potty thing. She goes pee in the potty well. Last accident was a while ago. We are still working on poop in the potty... but tonight she did it on her own. So yeah! Baby steps!

Tomorrow is Wednesday, the week is half over. I work at the Messenger and the girls go to Grandma's. Off to bed, I hope! Thought I just heard Ellie crying again... we will see!