chunky monkey

I am getting really bad at this updating business. I feel so torn when I get to use two hands for something about what to do and posting just falls to the wayside. I am working on a blanket for my niece. I started it before she was born, but after Rhys. I am almost halfway done but I feel behind since I wanted to be done before she was born.

Ava had her eye appointment at University of Chicago. Her appointment was with the head of pediatric ophthalmology. He would be the doctor who would perform the surgery, if necessary. It was a crazy day and our appointment was over 4 hours after it was scheduled. The end result was that surgery is definitely not necessary at this point, everything looks really good. The same thing that causes her glaucoma strengthens her optic nerve to be able to withstand the pressures of the glaucoma. Interesting phenomenon there. He doesn't think she will ever have a loss of vision due to the glaucoma. In the office at about hour 3.75, Rhys attempted to laugh at Ava. His first laugh ever. It was definitely a little chuckle. He also tried to laugh at me tonight. Both times, it ended with him starting to cry. He isn't sure what he is supposed to do and how to make the sound I guess.

He is turning into a little chunker. I swear his legs get fatter every day. I don't think he is getting longer at all though. Just chubbily. He holds his head up like a champion though and tries to have serious conversations with us.

Ava and I are busy planning our garden for this summer. She is very excited about growing a pumpkin so she can paint it. I am wondering how it is going to go over when she realizes out of everything we are going to attempt to grow, it will be the last thing that is ready. She is also promising other people our harvest. "We are growing strawberries in our garden. You can have some." I am not counting on more than three actual strawberries in the end, based on my garden's performance last year. I am planning on building some raised boxes thingies. I know there is a name for them, I just can't remember what they are. I need to get some wood and nails and I have everything else. I don't care if it looks pretty. Its function is to hold dirt.

Yesterday when we were at my mom's house, Ava was getting Grandma to dance. She wanted her to "shake it." My mom was wearing a vest that had what I guess you could call tassles on them. It was part of a costume. Any way, Ava decided she would lead her in a dance. She kept telling her to, "Shake it! Shake it up high! Shake it down low. Don't use your hands to shake it. Just shake it!" It was pretty funny because she was doing it too. Ava is must really be learning how to shake it at dance class. Last week she was the only kid there. When the class started the teacher was dancing around and Ava was just glaring at her. I was thinking that it could end up being a very long hour. By the end Ava was dancing too, in between taking time to make faces in the mirror and inspect her forehead for who knows what.

adventures in not babysitting

Last night our small group was canceled due to random children being sick.  We had a ladies night out instead.  We went out to eat and then all split up.  T. and I went on a mission to go get pierced.  Funny thing about living in the suburbs, a lot of piercing and tattoo places close shockingly early on a Friday night.  So we knew of one place that closed at ten.  We thought we were totally going to make it on time.  B. called and wanted to watch so she was following a few minutes behind us.  We could not find the place at all.  B. ended up beating us there and we got there at 9:50.  B. was intrigued by the apparently 60 year old ex-hippie woman with two lip rings, a nose ring and a barbell in the bridge of her nose.  I think B. was really leaning towards getting the bridge of her nose done.  We were trying to get B. to get her ears double pierced, but it was a no go.  The piercer had just left.  Plans ruined, because by this point, there were a couple other places that said they closed at 10, but we wouldn't make it.  We decided to go find a place to just sit and talk.  As we were driving I see another tattoo place with its lights on and people going in.   We did a u-turn in a  parking lot and went back in.  It was a tiny little place packed with 19 year old angst.   I felt old and was really glad that I didn't drive, so we at least didn't pull up in the minivan. 

You are supposed to look for a clean place to get any piercing and tattoos done.  I don't think I would go there for a tattoo, even though the ones that were being completed looked nice.  The displace case was a little worse for wear.  We get into the piercing room, and we are supposed to sit on a halfway broken looking weight bench.  Either way, the work station looked clean and everything came out of sterile packaging.  New gloves all that good stuff.  Our piercer was a guy named Kris.  It was hard to tell his age, but I am guessing he was actually right around my age or a little older.  It was funny, he definitely had the man, I am a badass piercer guy persona going on, but then T. said she was a little nervous and he was talking about how many kids she had, etc.  All to make his client comfortable.  I thought he was very friendly and professional.  T. was called sweetpea and I was just sweetie... :( I wanted to be sweetpea.  Just kidding.  As he said, he was ninja fast.  He was.  Super fast.  Barely any pain.  My eyes didn't even tear up.  I honestly think it hurt about as much as getting a flu shot.  That isn't a whole lot.

Oh, I got my nose pierced.  T. got her cartilage done.

Here is my nose.  (Have you ever noticed how weird your own nose looks to you from the side?)

2 months

Rhys had his 2 month check up yesterday. He is totally healthy which is such a blessing. He weighs 11 pounds, 6 ounces. He is 23 inches long. His head is 40.5 cm around. 40th, 48th, and 78th percentiles respectively. He is running bigger than Ava was. I will have to look Ava's up. I could have sworn it was on the blog somewhere, but I can't find it.

Rhys is still not even close to sleeping through the night. I don't think Ava really did until 4 or 5 months so I don't know why I am surprised. I just for some reason see him as older. Maybe because there is already another new baby in the family. I became an aunt for the first time last weekend. Now Rhys is the big baby. A little less than two months apart and starting out at pretty close to the same size. I am sure in a year you won't be able to tell who is older.

My friends baby is very sick. I really just don't feel right about writing all of Rhys' milestones right now. Got the numbers down that I will forget. I will write more later about the day to day.

dance

This is why I get nothing real done. It is 8:30, both Ava and Rhys are asleep in bed and the swing, respectively. I have about ten things I could do, including watching tv that isn't on Disney or Noggin. Instead, I choose to post.

Ava had her first dance class today. She was so excited, so she claims, that she couldn't take a nap. It got to the point where I was going to have to wake her up in less than 20 minutes to get her ready which would not have been a pleasant experience, so I just let her get out of bed. She of course fell asleep with in the car 20 minutes before class started. She was a little hesitant at first, but I can understand it. The waiting room is tiny and it was packed with parents and little kids. I think for future classes I might end up just waiting in the car, heading down to the dollar store, etc. She was one of 5 kids in her class (Though 1 of them moved to the bigger kid class halfway through. She turns 3 next month and can't start with the lowly 2 year olds.) including one little boy. She is the ONLY kid out of the original 5 who has hair that can even begin to be put in a pony tail. I was worried about not putting her bangs back with clips. I no longer have that worry.

The class started out with coloring, to get all the kids settled in. A couple were having some major separation anxiety. Ava just stood there staring at everybody for a while. No tears so that was good. She was the first one to cave in and go color with the teacher. The little boy never made it that far. He spent the class on his mom's lap and cried every time she tried to get him to do anything. Halfway through the class they tried to go do something at the bar. The little boys screaming ended that because he made another girl cry. The ended up doing ring around the rosie a few times. Then more coloring. They did dance around the last 7 minutes or so, after I stopped watching. I am hoping next week there will be more dancing. The teacher was new and I am not sure she knew what to do with the screaming kid or his mom. Ava said she had fun. She said her friends don't have names, they are just friends. They haven't gotten to that level yet I guess.

while i have battery left

I was working on something in my room on the computer and I have a little bit of battery left, so I thought I would give an update on our hum drum life.

Rhys slept until 4am in his carseat last night. Too bad i didn't fall asleep until 1. So much wasted sleep time! Saturday morning we "slept" until 10. I was up off and on from about 6, but either way, that is when Ava got us out of bed. I guess I just wasn't that tired last night.

I finished the Twilight series. Still like it.

Rhys has been working very hard at getting his thumb in his mouth. He can figure out how to extend his fingers but just can't keep them that way to get them in his mouth.

Ava starts dance class tomorrow and is very excited.

The cat pee smell that apparently only I can smell is motivating me to hire someone for real this time, to clean our carpets downstairs. I am going to bed tonight kind of excited that it is mostly clean downstairs. woowhoo.

Rhys has ended this post.

i had goals once

Prior to the plague hitting our house, I had goals. Really I did. I was doing a good job for like a day or two. I had a check off chart of things to get done in our house. I had a blanket I wanted to finish in the next 2 weeks. I had a study I wanted to do the daily homework for. I had weight I wanted to lose.

I did lose the weight, though it may all be water. FYI, stomach bugs with fever = dehydration = not good for your milk supply. I powered through thanks to the pump, though that ends up not good for the dehydration. Oh so dizzy.

I got through 2/5 days of the homework. All five to be finished today, in theory.

Blanket hasn't been touched in 5 days.

The chart is cold and lonely on the fridge.

My house is a disaster...though bonus, we have kept up on the puke/poop laundry, well cleaning it. Dishes are mostly all done. Christmas tree is down and I did clean out my fridge and freezer. Fully cleaned it, like took out the shelves and washed them. That was right before the plague officially hit me and Ava. Post Rhys, during Justin. (Confession: the ornaments aren't in their boxes, or any boxes for that matter. I just grabbed a gift back and worked from the bottom of the tree up. They are now in that bag in their rubbermaid bin. I will curse my self next year, but that is for next year.)

Oh, I also had a goal to get ALL of my Christmas/New Years/baby announcement cards out before the end of January. (seriously $.43 a stamp?) I have been mailing as I finish, so I don't lose them. Didn't happen.

I did, however, DESTROY the grocery shopping for the month, thanks to my SIL Diana. She sent me her meal plan and grocery list after shopping the sales ads. I went through it, adapted, and went to the store. She went to 4, poor thing, I went to 1, though not my normal store at all. After $81 in savings, I spent $191 on our groceries for the month (minus milk and some staples that we just don't have room to store, so add on...$20 more dollars here and there.)

I also got Ava her ballet clothes. Hopefully they fit. Size XS is not very specific.