I love Fall!

We went to the pumpkin patch!!! I love going and doing Holiday related activities with Kinsley, no matter the season, but there's something about fall! My little bean was VERY excited about going but once there I think she got a little overwhelmed. She had this shy smirk on her face a good chuck of the time, but over all she was running everywhere and VERY excited to see "PUMPKINS!"

Last Fall with a family of three!

Look it's "Uh Dan" as Kinsley refers to Uncle Dan! "Essie" (Aunt Jessie was there too, she was just one of the paparazzi)

Kinsley would kick and cry before going on these slides, even though she said she wanted to go on them. But, as she was coming down she remembered how awesome they are!

I was thirsty so i bought a HUGE lemonade, Kinsley stole it...

I told Kinsley she can only have a pumpkin if she can pick it up...

... those big brown eyes work on Daddy every time! lol

Happy Fall and Halloween!

I said it before, i'll say it again...

MATERNITY LEAVE SUCKS... oh that's right, the government doesn't have "Maternity Leave" They have leave you can take if you have a baby, also known as Emergency Medical Leave. You can sign up and have donated to you 6 weeks of leave. Period. The End.

IF i save my leave and try really hard and save, say, 4 weeks of leave, I don't get 10 weeks off with my new born, I get 6... because I can then ONLY accept 2 weeks of donated leave.

6 weeks of leave. Do you know how little that is? If I want to take more leave I have to do so without pay. The government tries to make it all roses and rainbows saying "You can take up to 12 weeks of leave" yeah UNPAID! Where is the silver lining in that? I WORK BECAUSE WE NEED THE MONEY! I would be a stay at home Mom if we could go 3 months without my paycheck!!!!

So now my family has a decision to make again. How many weeks of unpaid leave will I take? Only this time we have one in daycare.

I know some of you are thinking why didn't you plan better and save your leave better? Well here's why:

Each year I'm really lucky. I will earn 156 hours of Annual Leave (around 19 days) and 104 hours of sick leave (13 days). So that's a total of 32 days off!

I would LOVE to take a "normal" 12 weeks off (62 days) but I would be happy with 10 (50 days). Oh, so I only need to wait two years before I can have a kid to have enough leave right?

Well are you never going to be sick in two year? Will your toddler never be sick in 2 years? Are you not going to go on any form of vacation for two years? Will there never be a family, house, etc emergency for 2 years???

Exactly.

AND when you have a husband that has a job that makes it 90% impossible for him to take off with the sick child, that doesn't help. When you have family that lives 7 hours away making any visit to them need to be on a long weekend, that doesn't help.

Maternity Leave, or lack there of, SUCKS

a little up date

So on the Kinsley front: Zyrtec is AMAZING! It did a complete 180 with my child... so now she's off it. SAY WHAT?!? Yeah when my child and my house is finally happy i like to ruin it by pulling my child off the medicine that is making this possible, kidding!

I took her to the allergist because i wanted to know WHAT she was allergic to. Was this going to be a seasonal thing? A lifestyle? I needed to know. The appointment nurse said there were test they could do if i didn't want to take her off the Zyrtec so like a person crawling through the desert to only JUST find water, I left her on it! The DOCTOR (why can't doctors and nurses communicate better???) did not like this and prefers the skin test, which cannot be done while K is on Zyrtec. The blood test tells general areas of allergies, where the skin test says Yes THAT is the cause, not these other environmentals, and it tells the severity better.

So now my child is OFF of the Jesus Juice (it's the meds new nickname since something that worked that well could only come from the Savior himself). She now gets to snort (or have squirted up her nose) her meds like any decent addict would do. So far we've noticed she's not singing as many Hymns but isn't shouting Ozzy yet either. We just have to make it until Wednesday. Then they will prick her baby soft skin into looking like a quilt and we'll know if the dogs get to stay.

On the other miniature human front, Parker is giving me an UNBELIEVABLE pizza face. and a few of those pepperonis hurt. Thanks. Love you too. I will dress you up as tinker bell for your first Halloween just to mess with you and give you the love you gave me.

I'm 21 weeks to day and so excited! It's only 7 weeks until Kinsley's 2nd birthday AND my baby shower that my BFF is coming up from NC to throw for me with a BFF up here! YEA! I'm super blessed. Oh and that NC BFF? She's a DOCTOR! Uh huh, she got her Ph.D. She's pretty hot shit! I'm so proud of her! Go Christina!

The hubs and I have a MAJOR to-do list for our house (that we've mostly agreed upon) but not that much time to do it. Here's the list and then the schedule

1. Paint K's new room (ceiling, walls, trim, doors)
2. Install fan in K's new room
3. Paint k's new bed
4. Paint K's new dresser
5. Buy K's toy shelves
6. Put together night stand and toy shelves
7. Paint the Kitchen
8. Paint hallway, stairs way, and trim and doors
9. Paint nursery
10. have fireplace inspected
11. create a will
12. paint kids bathroom
13. Decorate K's room and nursery
14. Wash and set up bassinet, pack n play, car seat, swing, and bouncer
15. Was breast pump and buy new supplies
16. Reorganize kitchen with new cabinet
17. Donate/sell some of K's toys
18. Donate/sell K's old clothes
19. Put together Hospital Bag
20. Pre-register at hospital
21. Prepare for maternity leave
22. new car?
23. Add Chris to K's bank account
24. Make a bank account for Parker
25. pick a middle name for Parker
26. Finish plans and have K's 2nd birthday

I know there's more but here's our schedule:
10/15 Take K to pumpkin patch, Friend's annual Pig Roast
10/16 Visit friend's new baby and watch football game with then go to K's friend's 2nd birthday
10/21 5 year anniversary
10/23 K's friend's birthday party
10/29 Sadie vet
11/5-11/6 Friends wedding
11/11-11/13 Go to NC to visit BFF
11/18 thirty-one party
11/19 Friend's Baby shower and another friend's house warming party
11/20 K's 2 year pics, our family pics, and maternity pics
11/23-11/27 Go to NC for Thanksgiving
12/3 K's birthday party day
12/4 Parker's baby shower

NOT A LOT OF TIME THERE... especially when you add in naps for Kinsley and ME! And during the week is just NOT an option for us because i'm a zombie spitting fire by the time 7pm rolls around.

BUT on a positive note... remember the Dog Hair trapper couches? GONE! We got new (to us) ones!!! YEA! I love them, the hair wipes right off! I'm so happy! WOOT!

peace out

I'm at a loss for what to do...

So my poor little girl I think has allergies and so does the pediatrician. But this course of action is making me VERY impatient because I hate to see my little bean suffer.

The course of action is as follows. Trying a few over the counter meds (zertex, clairitian) for a week each to see if they work at all. If those don't work then come in and we'll try nose spray. If that doesn't work THEN we go to an allergist.

Here's my problem. It's been a week, we've moved on to the next OTC med because the first one didn't work. So now my child has been suffering for over 4 weeks. Daycare says that about an hour after I drop her off she starts to get puffy under her eyes and all drowsy and fussy. Then she won't take a good nap. Which then makes her even more fussy and irritable (the girl needs at least 2 hours), so by the end of the day she's an inconsolable bear.

Do i just bypass everything and schedule her for an allergist appointment. Do i follow the course of action. I feel so terrible because i get frustrated with her whining and irritabilness but I know a lot of it she can't help because she doesn't feel good. This sucks!

I keep forgetting to put this in writing!

So i want to track my weight this pregnancy and really try to stay healthy (despite the urges to pull over at every McDonald's/Taco Bell I pass). So this week I started a new eating plan from Baby Fit which is a site linked with Spark People. It's all free and awesome. BUT i has having issues trying to figure out my starting weight... FINALLY I have it!

Started at 172 (I know it wasn't pretty to begin with, get over it)
At now? 180!!! I've only gained 8lbs and I'm half way!!! ARE YOU KIDDING!?!?

Yeah I'm pretty stoked. Especially since i look like this:

Do you SEE THAT BELLY! WHOA! That kid is riding HIGH. And good lord when did my belly get so big?!?!? My neighbor is 8 weeks FARTHER along than me but i look the same size as her! MAN.

So I've been feeling a lot of kicks in the bladder area, this was confirmed by the fact that he's tends to be a head up feet and butt down baby. He also enjoys break dancing and playing with his penis in his spare time (true story).

I still have MANY food aversions, Chicken most of the time, seafood most of the time (i can handle shrimp sometimes), or anything else depending on how the wind is blowing. Something that sounds good one moment may make me gag another.

Still can always count on Mac and Cheese, Cereal, burgers, and tacos!

I had EVERY intention of working out this week to help with the multiple dimples on my thighs but alas I am sick and using it as an excuse to curl up in a little ball in my office come lunch time! But I do have a z-pak now so hopefully that will get my nose and cough in line.

Kinsley is very fond of her baby brother already. She even gives him hugs! And there have been times where she'll randomly ask about Parker (like she's met him)! lol. Love it!

So here we are, 2 days shy of 20 weeks and looking and feel good (well at least in the eye of this beholder).

Our family is/will be complete!

So last night Kinsley was reading to her baby doll and a few stuffed animals. I could hear her downstairs. She knows her books by toddler heart (meaning she knows the point of each page if not each specific word) and LOVES to read to her babies. So I snuck upstairs to record a brief moment of this, sorry about the lighting but i didn't want to do anything to disturb her.

Chris and I also went for the big anatomy scan of 2.0 and there was no doubt left in our minds, we're having a boy! One of each and our family is complete! We're so excited!

People's perception is amazing!

So I'm on the hunt for a couch and a dinning/kitchen table set. AND since the hubs and my budget is like $0 I'm looking on Craigslist. You can SOMETIMES find decent stuff on there but WHOA there are some special pieces on there. I mean it's amazing that people actually bought some of this stuff at one point AND think they can sell it now! It's truly terrible!
You know to stay away from ALL post with "Beautiful" in the Headline, it's NOT going to be beautiful. I promise!
"Good Condition" means it is in good condition, especially since it's from the 60s!

For example, look at this gem. It's titled "Sofabed- great color fabric, nice condition"

Great color? Which one? there's like 10 different colors in it. good condition, well YEA considering it's from the 1980s and lived through some questionable activity.

This one made me laugh: "Formal Luxury Gilded Round Coffee Table" and it's ONLY $1600. I mean who wouldn't want a $1600 coffee table right? Especially when it looks like this:

but take note that the glass top is NOT original. I mean they most likely took $2000 off because of that, since they originally bought it for $4160! OMG! WHY people? WHY?

This one was a little more honest: "Multicolored Patterned Sofa/Couch"

You knew going into it that it wasn't going to be pretty, but they want $155 for it, REALLY?

Now my favorite post are the unsuspecting ones. Ones that are titled very plainly: "Sectional and TV combo"... not combo is NORMALLY not a good thing, but you can never be too sure, so you open it up and BAM

They hit you with the red leather and brown suede couch. MAN! it's a STEAL at $500!

Do you love craiglist as much as I do?