Adventures in Babysitting!( lots of pics)

What you see to your right is a rare moment in which both Jeremiah and Sydney are actually happy at the same time and playing nicely together. Usually, one of them is grumpy, crying, needing to be changed/rocked/held/fed/cuddled or unwilling to share his toys/mommy's lap/mommy's attention. Don't get me wrong, Sydney is mostly a happy little gal and Jeremiah (well, used to be always but now sometimes) a happy go lucky toddler. But honestly... this has been a week of adjustment for all three of us. For me- taking care of an infant and a toddler. Figuring out a new routine and schedule for our day. For Jeremiah- not being the center of my attention all day, every day, and having his turf invaded. Having to share his toys and his mother. For Sydney- spending a good chunk of the day away from home, from Mommy, a change in schedule and learning to take a bottle more than once a day. Learning how to be put down if her caretakers hands are needed to feed, change, put down for a nap or cuddle her big cousin. (Or try to pacify his new tantrums!)

I'm praising God from the rooftops that Louis mostly works from home now. His hands are very helpful in the morning feeding Jeremiah his breakfast while I put Sydney down for her first nap, and giving Jeremiah a few minutes of undivided attention here and there as he has free time. I'm also quite thankful that Jeremiah's morning nap (which has pretty much become a rather long nap= his now only nap of the day) and Sydney's longer nap pretty much coincide, and that her afternoon nap falls around his lunch time. Makes things just a smidge easier. What isn't easy is trying to teach a 15 month old to share his (or Sydney's!) toys (if that's even possible!) I honestly have no clue how to go about that one. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel so badly for Jeremiah. He's kind of lost in his own little world most of the day, playing by himself and occasionally glaring at Sydney or myself. I try to include the three of them in games together but with an 11 month age difference and huge developmental milestones between them, it's not easy. He seemed to warm up to her more towards the end of today than he has before, but we still have a long way to go. And neither of them are happy to share my lap- both Sydney and Jeremiah like to be the only one sitting in my lap, not one on each side. Ugh.

But, truthfully, I am enjoying my days with her even though I am always on countdown. I love babies. And I love spending time with my family. I know that eventually Jeremiah and Sydney will develop a friendship and be close cousins but it won't happen over night. Of all my cousin's kids they live the closest to us (their Huntington beach home is about 25 min without traffic away) and we have more opportunties to see them than my AZ cousins and my cousin Kelly and her kids in Fontana. I really like the time I have with Sydney when she's awake and Jeremiah is asleep and vice versa. Babies are so much fun and it's making me even more anxious to get the all-clear to start trying again! Yet after this babysitting experience I am also tempted to wait just a smidge loner so Jeremiah is a little older and can understand more about sharing me and his space.

I have tomorrow off because Sydney has her 4 month check-up. I know it will do Jeremiah a world of good to spend the entire day with just me (and his great grandma Sally for lunch, and Uncle Joe and Auntie Lindsey in the evening! They are babysitting so Louis and I can have a date), and I definitely know he is looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday! I miss seeing my parents 3 times a week at my mom's shop. On the weeks where I don't babysit Sydney (3 weeks on 3 weeks off) I'm going to be going back to my mom's shop and she is thrilled. So is Jeremiah. He goes nuts when we pull up to her shop, her house, or when he hears his grandparents voices. So precious

Anyway I'm going to close tonight with a few pictures from the past few weeks! Enjoy!Sorting change with Daddy
Loves his ball pit!
Paws off my vitamin water!
At California Adventure
My Little Model

5:00 A.M.

That is the time that my alarm went off this morning, determined to get dressed, refreshed and have some time to myself before Rayna drops off Sydney at 6:45 a.m. for my first day of babysitting. Lets just say that I reset my alarm for 5:30 shortly after it went off, and here I am, 15 min. later, dressed, teeth brushed, and watching Apollo 13, praying that Jeremiah stays asleep til his normal 6:15-6:30 time. Even though I'm exhausted right now at this very early hour, I'm also very glad that I took my mother's advice about getting up earlier than I planned to get some "me" time.

Anyway, so yes today starts my big babysitting adventure! Today and tomorrow are half-days; Sydney will be picked up around 12:30. Wednesday starts full-days where I will have her until 3:30ish. Honestly, I have NO clue what it's going to be like watching an almost 4- month old and an almost 15-month old child. I brought out Jeremiah's bouncy seat and some of his old infant toys that I had packed away, and tonight I am going to pick up his swing and play mats from my mother in law's house. She is storing them for us in her garage since ours is being used for Louis's office. From what Rayna was telling me, Syndey is a lot like Jeremiah was at that age, taking cat naps here and there (20 min being a long one!) and loves to be held. I'm sure my blog is going to be filled with lots of hair-raising stories about how my days have been spent!

To make things just a little bit more interesting (because, honestly, isn't normal boring?) this afternoon I am picking up my parent's dog, Candy, to dog-sit for the next three or four days. My parents leave for Vegas tonight for a convention for their business. My brother is going very early tomorrow (try 5 am) after he gets off of work at Target, to help set up the booth, and will come home late that night/early morning. So he won't be around to watch her, let her out and feed her. Now I LOVE my dog to pieces, and so does Jeremiah, but two babies and a dog? Especially when our back yard isn't completely fenced in? Going to be slightly complicated!

Anyway, on Saturday Louis and I went to Paul and Rayna's house for some fantastic homemade sushi and an afternoon of spending time with my cousins. Afterwards, Louis took Jeremiah home and Marissa and I got to spend an evening together! We stayed in Huntington Beach where Paul and Rayna live, and went to Whole Foods for a smoothie, then saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic." Not the most intelectually stimulating movie, but it kept us entertained for two hours. Then we hit up Taco Surf for dinner! Mmmmm. She's coming over tonight so that we can watch the Bachelor finale together. Crossing my fingers for Melissa!!

Anyway, going to get a quick bite to eat. I'll update more as I have time!

Things are about to change =)

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. This week has certainly been a busy one for me! Starting on Monday I will be babysitting sweet Sydney (almost 4 months old) 5 days a week for 3 week shifts- three weeks on then 3 weeks off. Because of that, I've been doing my best to get this house in tip top order! I prefer to spend most of my time playing and interacting with my son rather than scrubbing the house all day, every day. Thus, my house is neat but not spotless, and not as organized as I would like it. However, if I were sending my son to somebody's house on a consistent basis for child care, I'd want that house to sparkle! I want to provide that kind of atmosphere for little Sydney. So... I've been cleaning and getting ready for tomorrow when we bring in a HOUSEKEEPER! Yeah yeah, the stay-home mommy and housewife shouldn't technically have one, but everyone deserves a little help every once in a while. The lady we're hiring is one of Louis's employees, who apparently cleans like a pro and wants extra hours of work. If all works out then we are going to hire her on a bi-monthly basis. I'm looking forward to her doing all of our deep cleaning that I've been putting off for some time (cleaning the fridge, mopping, baseboards, etc.).

Anyway, I am sad to announce that I am officially ready for a break from Disneyland. I'm looking forward to taking a break when I'm babysitting Sydney. Jeremiah and I went on Wednesday morning only to find tons of crowds. Apparently several private schools have the entire week off. It took us 20 min. just to get through the main gate, where you show your tickets or your pass. No joke. Since I didn't want to get back on the tram and go home without doing ANYTHING, we went on just a few rides- Peter Pan, Dumbo, It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh (twice). And Jeremiah flirted shamelessly with Tigger. We left two hours later and had our first playdate with Nicole and Mariah (one week younger than Jeremiah) who live across the street from us. Louis put together Jeremiah's Step 2 wagon and we took the kiddos for a walk, and played outside with Jeremiah's slide and push toys. Those two are simply adorable together! I kid you not, Jeremiah acts totally different around her than with his buddy, Braden. It's like my little man is trying to strut his stuff and act all macho. To all you mommies out there- how do you handle the kiddos not sharing at this age? Taking toys from one another, etc. I know it's darn near impossible to expect 14 month olds to share their toys willingly, but how do you do it? Do you intervene when they take toys from one another or let them work it out?

Tomorrow will mark one week of Louis working from home. It certainly has been a treat seeing my husband more than we normally do, and having him around to play with Jeremiah and actually put him to bed! Jeremiah has completely fallen in love with his daddy the past two weeks, since we came back from Phoenix. All I hear from him is Daddy daddy daddy! I just love seeing the two of them interact with one another, whether he and Louis are wrestling, racing cars down his slide, or Louis is singing him a song before going to bed. However, with Louis being around more also comes the constant requests for sandwiches, drinks... and other things! I swear, all I hear when he has a break is "when does Jeremiah take a nap? Is it his naptime yet???" If you catch my drift. We have to work out some boundaries....

Anyway, I have a few things left to organize before Sandy comes tomorrow. Goodnight everyone!

Valentines Day!

(Photos in this blog courtesy of my wonderful cousin, Rebecca!)

So yesterday was Valentines Day! Valentines has never been a huuge holiday for us, so I was not surprised when I didn't wake up to flowers and chocolate and a card. However, I was rather annoyed that Louis didn't let me sleep in; rather he got to sleep in. I was exhausted. We had to be at my grandma's house to set up Louis's computer equipment for Joe and Lindsey's engagement party by 12:30 for the 1:00 start time. Louis was going to play DJ for the day. Anyway, I was in a rather bad mood from not being able to sleep in, and the fact that it took Louis 3 (yes 3!) hours to pick up his speakers from his mom's house (10 min away). Little did I know that he was also getting a haircut... and flowers for me! A beautiful half dozen bouquet of red roses. As soon as he walked in the door and I saw those gorgous flowers my bad mood disappeared. I love getting flowers! And I love my sweet husband, and felt guilty for being annoyed when he was really just doing nice things for me. I love the way he looks after a fresh haircut.

Anyway, we had a good time at the party. The food was delicoius! My mom hired the same caterer that we hired for Jeremiah's bday party, except rather than having a taco station, she ordered fajitas. MMM. Plus all those yummy appetizers that we got at Costco the day before. My brother and Lindsey liked (I hope!) the gifts we got them. I swear I always deliberate long and hard before buying presents and then worry that people I give them to don't like them! I got them a photo collage they had on their registry,a nd also a cute chip and dip bowl.

We were planning on going to the Steak Corral with Jeremiah after the party (last Valentines was the first time we had gone), but it was nearly 6:30 when we left the party and we were stuffed, so we just went home. After we put Jeremiah to bed, Louis and I watched "A Walk to Remember" on TV in candlelight. Very romantic =) Not one of my all-time favorite romantic movies, but it was the one we watched on our very first Valentines day. In a drive-in movie theater. So romantic =) So when we found out it was on TV last night, it was very easy to decide what to watch. Tonight we are dropping Jeremiah off at Grandma Bertha's house while Louis and I go to the Outback for dinner! yay for date nights!
Anyway, here are a few pictures from the engagement party:

The Bride and Groom- my handsome brother and future sis!
Jer playing w/ Daddy's glasses

Peace =)

Okay so obviously this picture is a few months old (see the Christmas tree?) but I wanted to post SOMETHING on here =) Once again I"m guilty of not uploading pictures to my laptop and I'm just too darn comfy to get up of of the couch right now.

Right now my precious lil guy is sound asleep in his crib, after a long, rainy afternoon going to and from Costco. Tomorrow is Joe and Lindsey's engagement party and I went with my mom so that she could get some appetizers and such (I have a membership). He's such a trooper, especially since he has a wunny nowse right now. Much of this has to do with the fact that Grandma was with us. He absolutely adores my parents. I can't say this enough. All day long he asks for Grandpa, and can't get enough of his Grandma when he sees her (which is usually 3 times a week).

Today was Louis's first day working from home for his new job. Jeremiah certainly got a kick out of seeing a lot more of Daddy than he normally does, but as for me? Well if I wasn't being asked for sandwiches and things, I was being shooed out of our garage (where he was working and where our washing machine and drier are!) or being asked for some other favors. Definitely a different sort of routine to get used to.

Another routine to get used to- babysitting Sydney starting a week from Monday! I'm having one of Louis's employees come to our house and deep clean it next week, and possibly hire her on to clean twice a month. I simply do not have time to do all of the detail cleaning (refrigerator, stove, mopping, etc). My theory on housework? Spending time with my son is way more important. As long as it's sanitary and somewhat tidy, the other nitty gritty stuff is not a priority. However, if I were leaving Jeremiah in the care of someone else on a regular basis, you better believe i'd want the house to be SPICK AND SPAN! HEnce the reason for the housekeeper.

Anyway Jer just woke up so I better get going. Have a great weekend!

A bit excessive?

Two days in a row at Disneyland? I don't think it is! My husband thinks weekly trips are way overdoing it, so I didn't even mention to him that Jeremiah and I went yesterday, too =) I wanted Jeremiah to see the Pixar Play Parade at CA Adventure (only plays Fri-Tues) and he LOVED IT! We only stayed for two hours; I fed him lunch on Main Street, then we did It's a Small World (loving the new additions!), Alice in Wonderland, and Toy Story Mania before the parade. As soon as it was over- diaper change and headed home. As soon as he wakes up from his nap we're headed back for a more thorough day, and a few rides with Michelle and Braden when they arrive at 3:00 =) We'll be heading home by 5:00

Anyway, Jeremiah will be up from his nap soon so I better get dressed and pack the diaper bag!

Home Safe and Sound

Jeremiah and I got back from Phoenix around 2:30 this afternoon, safe and sound, without any major incidents. While my grandma flat-out refused to give up her car keys the entire drive over on Friday (and it's not like my aunt and I didn't try- repeatedly- to let us drive!), I am praising God that the rain we encountered only lasted up until we reached West Covina, 20 min. into our trip. God had His hands in our drive because, even though it's pretty much a straight trip on the 10, my grandma isn't the most skilled driver as of late. I prayed a LOT. Jeremiah did surprisingly well in the car. Scratch that- he did EXCELLENT. A two hour nap before we reached Blythe (a little more than halfway) and didn't have any real meltdowns until shortly before we got off the freeway to reach my cousin Mike's house. My cousin Jasmine (15 yrs old- daughter of Mike) very graciously gave up her bedroom for Jeremiah and I so that we didn't have to share the basement with my grandma and aunt Jenny. He was so tired that it didn't even matter that he slept in his play pen; he conked out for the entire night, hugging his bear, and then woke up mesmerized with Jasmine's bright, colorful room, her ceiling fan and the closet mirror doors. On the way home my grandma let me drive when we reached Blythe, and Jeremiah was just fine until the last 20 min. Halleluliah. He had such a fun time playing with his cousins, their toys, and seeing the huge geese and ducks that made home in the park where Cheyenne's birthday party was held. He also got a kick out of playing in the jumper with me and swatting bubbles from the huge bubble machine that Mike bought for the party. I had such a wonderful time catching up with my older cousins Paul and his wife Rayna, Mike and his wife Stacy, and my Uncle Bob and Aunt Madeline. We don't see everyone nearly often enough, even though Mike and Stacy are the only ones residing in Phoenix; the rest not too far from where I live. And I just LOVED spending some quality time with Sydney, Paul and Rayna's daughter. Turns out I'm going to be babysitting her starting in two weeks when Rayna goes back to work! I can't wait!! Bummer- I forgot to take my camera out of my duffel bag, so sadly I have no pictures from this fun filled weekend.

This week:
Monday and Tuesday- helping out at my mom's shop, last minute preparations with my mom for my brother and Lindsey's engagement party (Saturday!) There is SO much left to be done
Wednesday- Disneyland! (Surprise surprise). Michelle and her husband will be there with Braden, and we might meet up for a few rides. I won't be staying the whole day
Thursday- Mom's shop, more preparations, purchase engagement party present
Friday- set up for the engagement party (held at my grandma's house)
Saturday- Valentines day and the engagement party!
Sunday- Valentines date with Louis. I feel bad asking anyone to babysit on the holiday so we will go out on the 15th.

Road Trip!

Tomorrow morning Jeremiah and I are off to Phoenix! Hopefully the rain wont' be too bad, and I especially hope that my grandmother will be true to her word and leave the driving up to my aunt and I. She is a very independent woman who prefers to do all the driving herself (especially since we will be taking her car; it's the most spacious of the three of our cars) and insists on doing most of the driving on road trips. To say that I"m terrified of my grandmother's driving is an understatement. I hate the stereotypes that elderly people are bad drivers, but this is such the case with my grandma. PLEASE PRAY!! We are leaving tomorrow morning around 10:30, hoping to get to Phoenix by 4:00 or so. We would leave earlier, but Mike and Stacy (my cousins that we are staying with and parents of Cheyenne,t he birthday girl) are working until around that time anyway. The rest of the family that is coming are flying out early in the evening. Smart people... but my grandma insists on driving to save money. If we weren't driving then I wouldn't be going. Cheyenne's 5th birthday party is on Saturday and we will be returning on Sunday. If it is raining on Saturday (which it is supposed to be) then the party will be moved from a local park to their brand new house (which we aren't staying at; barely anything is moved there yet and they haven't sold their old home yet). I am really looking forward to having all the kiddos around for Jeremiah to play with, including miss Sydney Anne, who is now 3 months old! I just pray that Jeremiah will be able to sleep alright in a playpen, and won't wake everyone up since we won't be having our own room. He still (once in a blue moon) wakes up around 1:00 a.m. for a sippy and then again between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. for another sippy, and usually conks right back out, but since we're not at home you never know. I hate staying in other people's homes in situations like this because I hate being an inconvenience to anybody, and I hate maneuvering around other people's homes that I"m not used to being in. I still have yet to hear back from Stacy as to whether or not I need to bring my playpen and high chair or if they still have theirs left from the girls (their youngest being 2 1/2). Hoping that if I need to bring mine, there will be enough room in my grandma's trunk for those things plus our luggage. Oh and Jeremiah's lightweight stroller, and a few toys to occupy him. Mike and Stacy gave me and Rayna (Sydney's mom) all of the toys from their kids for ages 2 and under, so there wouldn't be anything for him to play with over there.

Yesterday we spent the whole day at Disneyland with my friend Melissa. Jeremiah did wonderfully, and had such fun on Pirates of the Carribean, Dumbo, and the Toy Story Mania ride. It was his first trip to California Adventure and he would NOT STOP LAUGHING during that last ride! It was great. I'm so amazed at how brave my little boy is. Pirates scared me so much at his age (okay up until 8th grade I admit I wouldn't go on it!) but with my lil guy- no fear. Chattering through the whole ride. It's precious. I think it's just going to be the two of us next Wednesday, and then the following week we will meet up again with Braden and Michelle.

Anyway there's much to do before tomorrow morning. Have a safe weekend everyone!

I just had to say

...That I am slightly disturbed by the fact that some people are more concerned with what happened to my other blog or the frequency of my posts than the fact that I had a miscarriage.

I'm taking a blogging vacation for a few days

February!

Finally, January is over. The worst month of my life. Hopefully it wasn't a predecessor to what is left to come this year. All I can do is trust God that the rest of this year is in his hands. Not always the easiest thing in the world to do, but I am definitely trying.

Tomorrow Jeremiah turns 14 months old. I miss my little guy. I really honestly feel like I have barely seen him this month, which is nuts for me being a stay home mommy. Pregnancy, miscarriage and flu have left him in the caring hands of his grandparents for what I feel like a lot of the month. This month will be different. Louis is picking him up from his mother's house right now. She wanted to spend an afternoon with him, since lets face it, 99.9% of the time he's with my parents, even though she lives 10 min. from us. Honestly, it has nothing to do with her personally; she's just a very busy lady like my husband who works late nights and only takes Sundays off. It was nice to have an afternoon alone with Louis that didn't come about from me being sick. We barbecued carne asada, I made rice and guacamole, and watched (some of) the Superbowl. I can't stand football, and while Louis likes it, he wasn't into either team this year. Mostly we were just enjoying the HD picture on our screen. Our LCD TV has been living in our garage, being used as a monitor for Louis's computer. But since he's getting a new computer for his new job, we decided it was finally time to bring it inside, and tonight we're moving our other tv into our bedroom. I haven't had TV in our bedroom for nearly a year and a half and I"ve MISSED IT! When we switched from Time Warner to Verizon FIOS a few weeks ago, they gave us a DVR box for our bedroom. Not like I even NEED to record anything in there, but it will be nice to have more than just basic cable in our bedroom. While I'm hating the 1,000 channel line up of FIOS (it's so confusing having to re-learn all the channels I love, plus having lots of international, city programming and repeat channels), I"m loving that our package came with HBO and Cinemax. I love movies. I can watch my favorites over and over again, even if I just saw them. I don't keep the TV on too much during the day with Jeremiah, so I indulge during his naps and bedtime.

I really need to get back into taking lots of pictures of Jeremiah. I know these moments won't be around forever. I especially need to get better at uploading the pictures from my camera to my laptop, and lastly to my blog. I'm sorry my posts haven't been very visually appealing lately. I love looking at pics on the blogs that I read, Melissa's being my favorites =)

Anyway, the line up for this week:
Monday and Tuesday: helping my mom at her shop
Wednesday: Disneyland with Melissa (friend from Target, not the photorapher of the fabulous photos I just mentioned). I haven't seen her in over a year and we can't wait
Thursday- very tentative afternoon playdate at California Adventure with Michelle and Braden, but most likely not going to happen until next week. Pack for Phoenix
Friday morning- off to Phoenix with my grandma and Aunt Jenny! We will be there for the weekend to celebrate Cheyenne's 5th birthday party. We're not sure if we're staying at Mike and Stacy's house or at a motel yet; we just have to see how many people from Cali stay at their house. I hope we are able to stay there; I barely get to see the girls (Cheyenne- turning 5 and Kiara, 2 1/2) and Jasmine (15!!!). Plus Jeremiah will have more room to spread out and play than being in a motel room with three other people. We're returning Sunday. I'm going to miss my sweetie but I'm sure he already has plans with his boys lined up.