Oh My Goodness!

We had a very nice Christmas this week.  We started out with a visit to Evansville last weekend and celebrated with my mom, brother, sisters, brothers-in-law and nephews!  As usual, Jason set the pace of the day because that boy can not stand to wait even ONE MORE SECOND to open presents.  : ) I have no idea what he got because, as is typical, he raced through opening his loot and then squirreled it all away to his room in approximately 97 seconds flat! 

 

The kiddos were fun to watch.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of all the babies together dressed up in their matching pjs.  I'll have to get that from one of my sisters.  But believe me when I say, they were SOO stinkin' CUTE!

 

Lily was helping to pass out presents before tearing in to her own. 

 

 

Tyler REALLY wanted to tear that present open!

 

 

 

We headed home on Christmas Eve night so that Lily would wake up to Santa's presents left under the tree.  Lily was a hoot to watch opening her presents.  Her favorite line was "oh my goodness!" which she said with almost each present she opened.  I think about 50% of what she got was Dora related!  And of course, all these toys and the thing she latched on to the most was a $4 set of Dora stickers.  That girl loves her some stickers!!  Instead of posting a bunch of the pictures, here's a video of her opening some of the gifts. 

 

(Sorry for the quality....the camera woman is not very good at this....)

 



 



After we opened gifts, Joel made us a big breakfast with bacon, eggs and biscuits.  YUM!  We just relaxed the rest of the day.

Then Christmas night "The Blizzard of 2012" rolled through.   I'm not sure the official tally of snow for Columbus but I'm guessing it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 inches.  Lily was scared of the snow at first.  I opened the back door and grabbed some snow to give to Lily to eat.  At first she wanted nothing to do with that but before all was said and done, she was sitting in the living eating a whole bowl full of the stuff!  Once the snow and wind died down, we took her outside to play in it and build her first snow man! 

Here you can see the snow is up to Lily's knees (she's standing...I'm kneeling)!

Lily got a little wore out of the snow though before it was all done so we didn't get a picture of her with the snowman right after it was done.

But we got one the next day (in spite of her protests)!

As if we didn't have enough excitement with all the snow, we ended up taking both of the kids to the doctor on Thursday.  On Wednesday night, I noticed this white spot on Lily's tongue.  It looked kind of like a callus and was about the size of a pea.  I'm not gonna lie, I freaked out.  I was thinking the worst and of course Joel and I both took to the Internet to try to diagnose it.  But, nothing we read looked anything like what was in her mouth.  She didn't seem bothered by it but was drooling like crazy and her breath was a little funky.  The doctor is treating her for thrush, but I have to say this doesn't look like any case of thrush I've ever seen.  This is now the second day of "mecidine" and it does look a little better but I won't rest easy until it's all the way gone.

Tyler, my one BM/day baby, has had diarrhea since Christmas day.  He's having a BM pretty much after every feeding and then some and it's completely watery.  He's a tad bit fussy and spitting up a little more than normal, but I wouldn't say he's vomitting.  He has no fever.  The doctor just said to keep an eye on him and if it's not better in a couple days, to bring him back in.   Well another 36 hours has gone by and it's still the same.  He's thankfully not dehydrated but I am constantly checking for signs of that.  So far, so good but I really think he's pooped more in the last four days than he normally does in a MONTH.  The diaper genie is crying UNCLE!  I guess if he's still doing this on Monday, I'll take him back to the doctor.  I won't be allowed to take him back to daycare until it's cleared up. 

Welp, that was another really long post.  I guess that's what happens when you don't post for over a week! 

Tyler can never find out....

....that his pile of presents was a lot smaller than Lily's for his first Christmas!

Joel wanted to pick out only one thing for Tyler but I broke down and bought him a second thing.  He's only 3.5 months old so he really won't know the difference (right now) plus we still have lots and lots of "baby" toys that were Lily's so he really doesn't need much. 

But I still felt pretty guilty today after wrapping presents and seeing these two piles next to each other.  I have a million errands to run tomorrow, so the main goal will be to NOT buy more presents for Tyler!

Funny's Ride Wagon Horse Hey!

Yesterday was Lily's Christmas program at the Church where she goes to daycare.  It was finally time to see her in action after the last month of her singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain" every day at home.

Lily did great, even though she barely sang!

We were happily surprised that Lily stood up there the whole time and didn't try to run over to us.  But she did a lot of standing there with her hands in her mouth.  She did a bunch of the hand gestures and I think at one point she might have sang one line in one of the songs.  She was great!  We are so proud of her!

Here's some videos of the songs:

Go Tell It On The Mountain

The Reindeer Pokey

 

Little Star of Bethlehem



 

Wasn't That A Mighty Day



We may not have gotten much singing in while at the Christmas program, but Lily sang her heart out on the way home! 

And tonight on the way home from daycare she wanted to sing Jingle Bells.  So I sang the chorus once and then she started singing it.  Her version went a little like this:

Jingle Bell
Jingle Bell
Jingle allll waaaay
Oh what funny's ride wagon horse, hey! (translation:  Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey)

I'm pretty sure that's the cutest version of Jingle Bells I've ever heard and even though I'm normally a bit of a scrooge when it comes to Christmas music, I could listen to Lily sing it all day long. 

I wish I could video record and drive at the same time.  I'd have the BEST videos ever if I could figure that out.

Dora's gotta eat too, ya know!

Today Lily said that Dora and Boots needed to eat so she pulled up her shirt and fed them!

 

 

Wow!  I guess breastfeeding Tyler is leaving an impression on Lily!  We got her a baby doll for Christmas that comes with a bottle to feed the baby.  How confusing is THAT going to be for her?!?

 

An update in cell phone saga....I got in to work yesterday and had an email sent me at 1:55am from a Cummins security guard that they had my cell phone at main security (which is right by my desk).  So this story just gets stranger all the time.  It makes no sense to me how my phone turned up there 3.5 days AFTER I lost it!  I had scoured the parking lot the day I lost it and didn't find it.  I can't believe it would have survived in the parking lot all that time without getting run over.  Plus there's still the all too coincidental Craigslist posting with a phone matching mine, including the damage on it.  I suppose I will never know what adventures my phone was on for those 3.5 days.  Of course, I had already filed the insurance claim, received my replacement phone and gotten it all set up with my email and apps and such.  Sigh.  I don't know if I owe some random Craigslist seller an apology for accusing him of stealing my phone or whether I owe some Johnny Carinos diner a thank you for figuring out it was a Cummins' employee's phone and turning it in to security??  But if someone found it at Carinos, why wouldn't they just turn it in there?  The possibilities are endless!

 

Grateful for Google+ and this Blog!

After getting through the fury of having my phone stolen and seeing it on Craigslist, I had a secondary meltdown over losing all the photos and videos I had on my phone.  I mean, I literally started wailing while standing at the sink washing Tyler's bottles!

But then last night, I had a revelation!  I had Google+ on my cell phone and any time I took a picture or a video, it would automatically "Instant Upload" to my Google+ online account.  I would never have bothered to set up that feature on my phone had it not been for this blog.  So, anyway, I started to get cautiously excited that I might still have a way to access all those precious moments.

So I logged in and tada!!  My videos and photos are there!  I'm so happy.  I found there's a way to download my stuff to my computer so I should be golden! 

So here's a video I took of Tyler earlier this week.  He was cooing and jabbering like crazy so I busted out my phone to try to capture it.  Of course when I got my phone out, he got camera shy and quit talking.  But he's still pretty cute. 

Thank you Google!  Enjoy!

And to the creepy jerk-face thief who stole my phone, in the words of My Two Broke Girls, you can SUCK IT!

The long arm of the law was in my HOUSE!

Today was not a good day in the life of Kelly Basham.  It started off badly with some work related baloney which I will not go in to but left me pretty upset none-the-less.  Then I went to lunch to escape the prison workplace for an hour and had a very nice lunch with my friend Stephani.

As I'm walking out the door of the restaurant, I pull my phone out of my coat pocket to check the time and get in the car and head back to work.  Upon getting back to work, I go to pull my phone out my pocket and it's not there.  I rummage my purse.  Nope, no phone.  I run back to the car tear it up looking.  No phone.  Go back in to work and call Johnny Carinos.  They check the parking lot and they don't have it.  I rummage my purse some more and check my coat pockets again and for some reason, it hasn't miraculously appeared (my boss asked me if I thought if I checked my coat one more time, it would show up....smartass!).  So then I decide to drive back to Johnny Carinos and check again for myself - you know, just in case the hostess was lazy or blind or something and didn't really look for my phone.  Nope, not there.  So then I drive over to Joel's work and make him come out and search the car in case I'm just overlooking it.  Nope.  Not.  There.

So I go back to work totally defeated because I'm sure that some a-hole has stolen my phone.  So I suspended the service on it so at least it couldn't be used.  Then I check my phone insurance to see if it covers lost/stolen phones (and it does, thank goodness) and try to figure out what I need to do to replace it.  Meanwhile, after Joel gets off work, HE goes to Johnny Carinos and looks for it too. 

So when I got home tonight, I tell Joel that I'm pretty convinced someone stole it so he gets the bright idea to check Craigslist. 

BOOYAH.

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/mob/3471395570.html

At 2:08pm today (less than 40 minutes after I last looked at it at the restaurant) my phone was on Craigslist.  Complete with the description of the damaged case.  My blood starts boiling. 

But Joel's blood boiled faster.  While I'm cooking dinner, trying to decide what my next move should be, Joel responds to the Craigslist posting and offers to buy it!

I freaked out.  I watch the news, you know, so I'm all "What do you think you're going to do?  Meet this guy and try to TAKE it from him?  I don't think that story has a happy ending!!  You could be murdered!  Over a cell phone!  Forget it!!" 

So I mull it over some more and decide that my phone is long gone.  I'm never getting it back.  This a-hole's out to make a quick buck and that's all there is to it. 

My only recourse now, I believe, is at least to try to make the guy feel like a real douche for stealing my phone.  So I emailed him (with a newly created email address) with a plea to return the phone to it's rightful owner.  I don't expect him to answer me (and as of now, he hasn't answered Joel either) but I feel a little better about at least reminding this guy that the phone belonged to a REAL PERSON and it's NOT NICE to steal people's things. 

Now that's a fun story, right?  Well there's more.

Joel's still super p*ssed, even after I say it's over and there's not much we can do.  He's all, "I think we should report it stolen.  You know, on those TV shows the cops always ask if the gun was reported stolen."

Hahahahahahahahaha!  Report a stolen cell phone!  That's just silly.  But, my husband, he's on a mission and I'm still so mad that someone wouldn't just turn over the phone to the people at Johnny Carinos so I don't stop him.  He calls the police department, just expecting to make a report and see if anything can be done.

They dispatched a POLICE MAN to our HOUSE!  Within 20 minutes, we had an officer at our house to take down my report of the stolen phone so it could be entered in their "database." You know, in case my stolen phone is somehow recovered - even in California - I can get it back.  The officer was talking to us like our CAR was stolen or something.  I swear, I must have apologized 47 times for him having to be at our house, making a report over a CELL PHONE, just in case all his serious talk was really him making fun of me for reporting a stolen cell phone in the first place.

But it gets even better.

The officer asks me if I have the box with the serial number.  So I dig up the box but there's like 3 different numbers on the box and it's not obvious which one is the serial number.  So the officer says:

"I've got a buddy who works for Verizon.  I'm going to go out to my car give him a call and see if he can tell me which number is right so I can get this report in the system right away since we have a lead on the suspect."

Then he walks out to his car.  I nearly lose it.  Did he really just say "a lead on the suspect"?????  Over a cell phone?!?!?!? 

I wish the police officer could answer the Craigslist ad and retrieve my phone. 

Anyway, the moral of this story:

1) What is wrong with me? Am I seriously so unlucky or careless or klutzy or something such that these things happen to me (remember the ran over milk bag from a few days ago??)?

2) People suck.  It's not nice to steal. 

3) I'm grateful that I live in a town small enough that the police will come to your house over things like this --> implying that the town is pretty safe and there aren't more pressing places for them to be

4) We watch WAY too many cop shows on TV!  Haha!

And finally,

5) My husband is my hero.  He did everything he could to help me.  God love him.

3 months old!

Tyler is 3 months old today!!

Stats:
Weight - 15lbs 14 oz (he was clothed though so probably subtract a couple ounces) (~90th percentile)
Length - 25.5 inches (~90th percentile)

Eating Habits:  Now that I'm back to work, I know that Tyler is eating about 7-8 times a day depending on if he goes all night or not.  He takes four 4 ounce bottles of breastmilk at daycare.  I nurse him in the morning and then twice after work in the evenings (and sometimes at 3 or 4 in the morning).  The breastfeeding is going really well except that I'm have to pump 4 times a day at work to keep up with his 4 times a day feeding at daycare.  I hope that it spaces out over time but something tells me that we're going to be staying at this frequency for probably a long time.  We'll see.....I hope I can keep up.

Sleeping Habits:  He's doing pretty good on sleep although not as good as his sister did at this age!  He's had several nights of sleeping until 5:30 and even a couple nights sleeping until 6:30 in the morning but the last several nights we've been up at 3 or 4.  So he's all over the place on this.  His naps at daycare are also not super consistent.  Most days he does get a 40 minute nap in some time during the day.  The rest of his naps are 15-30 minutes tops. 

Awake Time:  Tyler's getting so full of expressions and it's so fun to talk to him and smile at him because he smiles and coos back.  It's soo adorable.  This month he also seems to have found his hands.  He clasps them together and puts them in his mouth.  So far he doesn't seem to know his feet are down there yet. 

Lily and Tyler 3 month side by side

I remember by this time, Lily had started drooling like CRAZY.  We kept thinking she was sure to get teeth but that didn't come til 5 months old or so.  No drooling with Tyler.

Sibling love!

And a pic of Lily cause she's so cute....

Working Mother of Two....

....is hard.  It's so hard.  It's so unbelievably hard and I'm so p*ssed that none of my so called friends warned me about this!!!  Haha....sort of....

It's only my 5th day back to work and already I'm day dreaming of hitting the lottery, hiring a full time nanny, cook and housekeeper and spending my days going to Target and knitting. 

Ok so maybe I'm overreacting a little but my morning was a tough one.

Every night, I spend about an hour (sometimes more) preparing for the next day.  I have to put away the milk pumped from the day/prepare what I'm taking the following morning, wash all the pump bottles and accessories, wash the bottles Tyler drank from at daycare, remove all the peepee, poopie and spit up clothes that two children generate in a day from the diaper bag, replace those clothes with clean clothes to take back to the daycare the next day, and fetch other items such as diapers, wipes, etc that the kids ran out of at daycare.  On Sunday nights, I have to also remember to grab the kids' blankies which were sent home on Fridays to be washed, write out the check to pay the daycare and grab Lily's communication folder.  This is all in addition to cooking dinner, doing dishes, giving baths, etc.  To be fair, Joel helps with those things. 

Then in the mornings, it's another crazy scramble.  In addition to getting myself ready, breastfeeding, diapering and clothing Tyler and dressing and feeding Lily, I have to get all our crap ready to load in the car.  First I have to repack all my pump stuff which has been drying over night.  Then pack my lunch box (the lunch was prepared the night before). Then I pile up all the crap by the door.  The pump, lunchbox, diaper bag, milk cooler & bottles, purse, laptop (which I try to leave at work as much as possible to reduce the number of things I have to carry) plus diapers and wipes when necessary (like this morning).

So this morning, when I then took all that crap the car, disaster struck.  I carried all that stuff at one time to the driveway.  I set it all down on the driveway to open the car door and load everything in.  I get that done and I'm feeling pretty good - it's been a smooth morning so far (except for the part where I had gotten up at 3:30am to feed Tyler and wasn't able to go back to sleep).  Back off to the house to wake up the kids.  So I get them up, fed, dressed and we're ready to head back out to the car to head to daycare....At this point, I'm only running 30 minutes late. 

I back out of the driveway and look up and what do I see? 

The cooler bag of milk sitting in the driveway.

SHIT.

I pull back in the driveway and get out, the whole time praying that I didn't run over it.  I pick it up....no milk leaking.  I open it up and pick up two of the four bottles inside....they are in tact.  We're good to go.  I'm feeling lucky and relieved.  Throw it in the backseat and off to daycare.

Get to daycare and start to unload my 47 bags of crap and find there is milk EVERYWHERE.  All over the back seat.  All over the diaper bag.  All over my lap top bag. 

One of the bottles was smashed to smithereens. 

I cried.  In the middle of the daycare parking lot.  With milk dripping all over the place.

So I pull it together, thankful that it was only one bottle that smashed and not four.  Could have been much worse. So I take the kids inside and tell the daycare that I will stop back by during my lunch and bring some pumped milk to make up for the missing bottle.

So I have to say the silver lining in this day is that instead of taking pumped milk, I just went in a nursed Tyler during my lunch.  So I got to see my baby in the middle of the day and that made me feel somewhat better about running over gold in my driveway this morning!

I love my kids (they are SOOO cute....see evidence below) but this is HARD WORK!!

 

 

On another note, I spent the day at work today filling in my performance self evaluation.  This is what I wanted to put: