Things I Have Learned

* kids and dogs come with a manual that tells them "when walking, swerve in front of people and stop suddenly". This causes the best language to spew from the mouths of the person behind.
* dirt multiplies in houses - especially on white floors.
* everything that can be spilled will be - on the most inconvenient of surfaces.
* it is possible for babies to poop more times in a day than they eat. On a regular basis.

Sweet Moments

I have officially been a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) for about a month now and I have to say - I am LOVING it! I feel sooo much more relaxed and the kids (and Nick) seem to be benefiting from it too. The house? Yeah, it's a bit messier these days without our cleaning lady... The laundry? Doesn't get done on a regular basis... The bills? Money is a bit tighter, but we are managing... The cooking? It's a work in progress - burnt meals are to be expected... Is it worth it? 100% to see the smiles on my baby's faces and to get all the cuddle time I can handle! I am loving it! Next task - figure out how to make some extra cash to allow me to continue to stay home! While I am still looking for work (as required by the State of Maryland to claim unemployment), I will be honest and say that I dread looking for something else for fear of getting an offer that I can't turn down. I did have a company that was very interested and I'm certain they were ready to make an offer; however, after our hospital visit with Belle, I had to call them and tell them "Thanks, but no thanks" because the commute would have been 1.5 hours each way.
After her emergency room visit, I realized that I just cannot work that far away from my kids, especially at this age. If there is an emergency at daycare, it would take me 2+ hours to get from work, to daycare, and to the hospital. Or, if the emergency was bad enough (God forbid) that they would have to go by ambulance, it would still take me almost 2 hours to get there, with a terrified child alone in an ER. No thanks. So, I am just hoping that something comes up close to home - or I can make some of my "business ideas" work...
I am also tossing around the idea of heading back to school... I have been unhappy being and engineer for quite some time and this "break" seems to be just the kick in the pants to get me moving on my next career venture... What am I thinking?? Law school. Crazy, I know... But if I'm going to do it, I have to get started on it now and Maryland has a lot of great schools. The next step is to actually research to figure out exactly what type of law I would like to pursue (at this point, I am thinking labor law/civil law - something where I can help people who have been wronged) and then figure out which school I would like to head to and then get some financing. Who knows - stranger things have happened! :)

Hello Again

Well, I haven't been here in a while and so much has happened! First - Happy New Year! Crazy how fast 2011 went. Seems as though the years just keep getting faster and faster! (Does that statement officially make me old?!) Here are a few updates from the past couple months:

Isabelle: Has turned 3!!! And a big three she is! She was 40 lbs and 40 inches tall at her 3 year appointment. She has a super fun birthday party at the aquatic center near our house. Three of her friends (and their parents), Ben and Julia, and of course, Dana all came to celebrate! She is learning so much and now understands what numbers mean instead of just being able to count. She can point and count a number of items and *generally* comes up with the right number! She doesn't quite get her age yet... She'll usually say she is 4, when asked! She has mostly outgrown the terrible twos. We are into a new, energetic, loving, happy, usually obedient, phase. We love this little girl!

Birthday girl making a wish.

Friends "helping" to open presents!

In the pool.

George enjoying the party too.

Going down the slide with Nicholas.

George: Is now seven months old! At his 6-month well-visit, he weighed in at 22 lbs, 8 oz and was 28 inches long with a head circumference of 44 cm. This translates to: well above 95th percentile for weight and somewhere in between 90th and 95th for length. He was back to the doctor for a flu booster just after Christmas and was 24 lbs 4 oz. :) Happy, healthy baby boy! He is sitting like a champ, trying to crawl (having difficulties with our wooden and tiled floors - keeps slipping), has two teeth (and is working on several more). He is "talking" and the "words" we have recorded so far are: Dada, Belle, ba-ba, and - finally - Mama (as of Sunday).

Photo shoot in the leaves.

"What?!?!?!"

So happy!

6 months!

7 months!

Sneak Peak

We had Christmas photos taken last weekend... Here is a sneak peak! They turned out AWESOME!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween today! This year was the first time Belle really understood what was going on. She chose her costume (from her dress-up stuff) and was very excited to be Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz - or "Wizard of Ba" as she calls it... :) Her costume was even complete with Ruby Red slippers! We had to layer up because of the chilly temps the last few days. (We even had snow here - in Maryland - Saturday!)

 Here is Belle in her costume with her Toto.

 Little pumpkins!

George the blue-eyed monkey.

We had a great time trick-or-treating in our Ferry Landing Woods community! We went from house-to-house on the hay ride and ended at Hooker's Train Station. Grandma Gloria is down visiting for a few days and got to enjoy this Halloween with us!

 Hooker's Haunted Train - all three Dorthy's in one car!

Carving pumpkins with Grandma.

Another month

Today, George is five months old. He is 21 pounds, 7 ounces - a VERY big boy! Today he had two shots and didn't make a peep! He's tough like his sister! His first ear infection (discovered last week) is cleared up. He did great on the anti-biotics, even if I DID screw up and only give them to him once a day when he was supposed to get it twice... :)

 Today, Isabelle is 35 months old! She is 40.5 pounds - also a very big girl! Next month, she will be three years old... I am not sure how that happened. Note: To everyone who said "it will fly by," you were right! No need to rub it in... Belle got a flu shot today. She went first (because I didn't want her to get scared when George started crying after his shots) and she did awesome! She didn't make a peep either! However, she did hide her head in my chest and the nurse said, "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt your feelings?" and she nodded "yes". Since she was so brave and SUCH a big girl, she got a lollipop, a balloon, AND... wait for it... a BAND AID! That was the highlight of her trip... The band-aid. I love this girl!

34 and 4

Yesterday began months 34 and 4 for our little ones. The day came with a nasty cough and fever for Belle, but a pretty good day for George. We spend almost 3 hours at the doctor awaiting our sick and well visits. Belle's cough and fever are not strep, as we thought it might be since it is going around at daycare. Her left ear was "questionable" (as Dr. Sue put it) so she is on another round of antibiotics for that and her enormous tonsils. The girl has the largest tonsils I have ever seen (and every doctor comments on it and runs strep tests everytime we go in because they are so huge all the time) but no strep! However, Doc said there's a chance it could be tonsilitis - another reason for the antibiotics. Hopefully everything clears up soon. She is still 39 pounds! One pound from officially having to move to the new booster seat we picked up last weekend.

She did not want to let me take her picture here, so I just had to snap one quickly when I managed to get her to look up...

Georgie boy is doing great! Healthy as can be! He is growing like a weed (still) and will be starting solid foods in the next couple days (probably this weekend). At four months, our little man weighed in at 19 pounds even and measured 26 1/2 inches long, dwarfing big sister at this age (who was 16 lbs 15 oz and 25 inches long). :)

Happy boy, sitting very well with support!