Hoppy Easter!

I am very excited to report that for Taylor's second Easter we were actually able to successfully hunt Easter eggs! And no, we did not dye our own eggs. Call me a fuddy-dud if you want, but I have no interest whatsoever in seeing how many colors my child can stain me, herself, and our flooring all in the name of dyeing boiled eggs that I adamantly refuse to eat. So instead, we opted for the El Cheapo plastic eggs that came pre-filled with candy (for those of us who choose to be "energy efficient" in our endeavors).

At first, I could tell that Taylor had no real grasp of the concept of running around like a maniac and picking up eggs (And yes, I know that too will come in time). Until, that is, she squeezed one of them hard enough to pop it open and realize there was candy inside. After that, it was on like Donkey Kong. The only snag was that she wanted to stop and eat the candy out of every single egg before moving on to pick up the next one. Thankfully, Jody volunteered for bucket duty (Maybe volunteered isn't quite accurate. I opted to take the pictures so that my large ass wouldn't be in any of them, therefore he was stuck with the bucket by default.) so that I wouldn't have to run after her huffing and puffing from all the bending over.

Ok, I'm holding the damn bucket like you asked. Now, could someone please explain to me why?

Taylor with her Poppy and Lovie. She's almost as tall as they are ;)

Wait, there's candy in here?????

Checking out her loot.

On one sad note, I failed in my one Easter tradition this year - The Hoarding of the Cadbury's. Usually the day after Easter I make a mad dash for the local Walgreen's with the least amount of traffic and buy up all the Cadbury eggs after they're on sale. But alas, this year I forgot. Therefore, I will have to wait a full year with no reprieve from a secret stash.

Oh Yeah, About That Other Kid

So yeah, maybe I'm feeling a little guilty as of late. I've fallen victim to a common crime amongst parents of more than one child. We do all sorts of documentation for the first one, and with each subsequent child our ability to document their journey leaves more and more to be desired. I remember feeling so bad for Jody when his mother said that he never had a baby book (he's kiddo #4 in their lineup). Now I realize that with three other kids to manage, it's a miracle he got named before his second birthday.

But, back to the matter at hand, other than announcing my pregnancy, I really haven't done a whole lot in the way of updating information on baby #2 on the blog. I'm now officially 26 weeks along, and so far everything is still sailing along rather smoothly. I am noticing that my body is not cooperating with me as much this go-round. I've had more aches and pains than I care to dwell on, and by the time I get home most afternoons, I just wanna lay on the couch and be lazy. So, for those of you who usually hear from me on a regular basis, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, I just find it too physically taxing to pick up my fat little fingers and use them to dial out any number that's not on a one-digit speed dial. Plus, by the time I get my little heathen to bed, its all too appealing to just crawl my big ass into bed as well.

We have come up with a name - Ava Marie. Like most creatively-challenged parents, this name came from a name book (as did Taylor, don't give us any undue credit there either), there are no sentimental or thought provoking reasons behind our choice. It was simply a name that we could both agree on, and didn't sound like something you'd find on the natural food aisle at the grocery store. The crib bedding is also safely in our possession, but we are waiting until the absolute last minute to rearrange our house to accommodate said crib amongst our already crowded house. I am so thankful to be creeping up on the final trimester, and after my next doctor's appointment, I get to start going every two weeks (insert unenthusiastic, "Yay..." here.). At least we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel!


Two-ton Tessie strikes again! Large and in charge at 26 weeks.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Munkie

Wow, up until this last two weeks I have never even so much as stepped foot into an urgent care facility. One perk of working for "The Man" though, is that as long as you stay within the health system I work for, it's actually cheaper to go to our urgent care vs. our pediatrician unless it's for a well baby checkup. So, once again we trotted our happy/pitiful heinies up there today after Taylor's daycare called to inform me that she was running a 102 fever yet again. First off, they made Taylor wear a ninja mask, which lasted all of about 2.5 seconds. Apparently running a fever brings out your hidden fighting abilities, so they make you wear the mask for identification purposes. See what you learn at urgent care?

Bring me Shredder...........

Anyhoo, long story short, we found out that Taylor has strep (again) and bilateral ear infections. Seeing as how she's still on antibiotics from her last battle with strep a week and a half ago, they also did a throat culture to see why in the hell she's not getting any better. As for the ear infections, blame it on Amarillo winds. We were up in Gruver this past Saturday visiting Jody's family, and most of the day was spent outside in the 900 mph wind. Wind+dirt+Taylor=ear infection. But, she did have an awesome time playing on Aunt Peggy's tractor......

So, for the next couple of days we are going to bunker down and take it easy around the house. Not that I'm super thrilled about having to take time off this close to a pending maternity leave, but at least Taylor and I can have a lazy PJ day.

And How are We Doing?

Well, as of late, pretty crummy. We had yet another fun-filled weekend with a sick Munkie. This time she won the strep lottery. She had stayed the night Friday with Jody's sister, and Tracy even mentioned Saturday morning that Taylor was acting a little puny and had a low-grade fever. By the time we were halfway home she was so lethargic it was scary. I decided to forego the stop by the house for some Motrin and just went straight to urgent care. Now, if you've ever spent even 5 minutes around my kid, you know that she does not sit still. Ever. As a testament to just how crappy she was feeling, that kid laid in my lap and did not budge for the entire hour wait in the lobby. Once we were taken back, they took her temperature, which was a whopping 102. They swabbed her for strep and flu, and mentioned that they had been having a big run of strep the last two days. Swell. I was wondering why almost everyone in the waiting room had a kid about her age in tow. She was diagnosed with strep, and got a fabulous shot in the leg (I'm a big believer in shots. I'd rather get it done in one dose as opposed to trying to remember something for several days), and they said as long as her fever was gone, she could go to school on Monday, hooray!

The rest of the evening, she was still pretty pathetic, but she did eat every last crumb of a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. So I knew her appetite was at least coming back. By Sunday, she was her usual precocious self. Apparently all the lounging she did Saturday was sufficient for the weekend, because much to my dismay, she didn't take a nap at all yesterday.

And, as a double dose of fun (more proof that God indeed has a sense of humor), Jody and I were blessed with sinus infections this weekend too. For me, this is no biggie. I'm a seasoned veteran of green snot and mouth breathing. But poor Jody only gets the crud about once every 3-4 years, so this is kind of a world-rocker for him. But fear not, we are loading up on Tylenol Cold and Vapo-Rub. I think we'll survive.

Waiting room pic #1, this is seriously the most pitiful I've ever seen my baby :(

After about 15 minutes, she zonked out again......

The next day, on our way to pick up her prescription from Walgreens. Note the blurry legs that are in constant motion. I told you she doesn't sit still.

Thanks A Lot Daycare

So yeah, Taylor has been in daycare for exactly 3 days. I knew that her return would also usher in the return of ear infections, snotty noses etc. But seriously, I thought it would take longer than 3 freakin' days! Taylor woke up yesterday in a fabulous mood (again, insert sarcastic tone here), and we just assumed she was tired from the new routine, plus she had stayed up late the night before. Well, even after her nap, she was pitching fits left and right. I'm talking about the fall down in the floor kicking and screaming kind of fits. I honestly don't know how many times we got on to her for various things. Yeah, then around 3:00, after she had just gotten in trouble for mashing up the orange I had given her as a snack and smearing it all over the table, she starts throwing up all over the kitchen.

Needless to say, Jody and I felt like complete assholes for getting on to her throughout the day when obviously it was all because she didn't feel good (in our defense though, she didn't start running a fever until after the puking began). Unfortunately, the kitchen was not an isolated incident. After it began she was pretty much throwing up every 1-3 hours until about 2:30 this morning. I guess it's a motherhood thing, because poor Jody was not even close to capable of cleaning up after her. So I spent my day mopping up nastiness and doing countless loads of laundry. Sadly, my cel phone was a casualty in one of these many loads. In my rush to strip out of my Taylor-soaked jeans and get them in the wash, I totally forgot that it was in my back pocket. So, if you haven't done so already, email me your phone number, because I totally lost all of my contacts.

On the upside, knock on wood, Taylor has kept everything down since 2:30 this morning and her fever has gone down considerably. She is just going to take it easy today, and I plan on joining her in that effort.

My little pathetic Munkie. She refused to lay in her bed, so we're settling for the floor.

Welcome Back

Today marked the return of Taylor to daycare after her nearly one year hiatus. We've been fortunate in that Jody was able to stay at home with her while he was going to school, but since he starts back to work on Monday, we decided to go ahead and get her started back a few days early just in case he needed to go and pick her up if it didn't go well.

Honestly, I anticipated a knock-down drag-out battle at the drop off. Every day when I leave for work Jody practically has to pry her off of me in order for me to get out the door on time. Plus to boot, someone woke up in an absolutely fabulous mood today (insert sarcastic tone here) and cried the entire time I was getting her ready to go. She didn't start to perk up until she realized that unlike every other day, today she got to leave with me. This was all well and good, and she seemed excited once we walked into the daycare. I'm pretty sure she just thought that the both of us were going to play with the other kids for a while, and then go home.

One of the perks to daycare is that they provide breakfast and lunch (provided you get there before 8:00, which works out perfectly with our schedule). So I sat her down at the little table and they promptly brought her a "muffin" and a cup of milk. Now, I'm using quotes around muffin, because that's what the menu claimed was for breakfast today. However, the tiny excuse for a muffin that they brought to her could really only be described as a donut hole at best. Taylor literally shoved the entire thing in her mouth at once and then looked up at the lady serving as if to say, "Ok, now what?" And before anyone panics that she may starve to death, fear not, they brought her another "muffin" as soon as she inhaled the first one. As she was chewing rather contentedly I went ahead and said my goodbyes and headed for the door. She pretty much just watched me walk out with no real reaction whatsoever.

Now, mind you, the very first time I ever dropped Taylor off at daycare when she was only six weeks old was easy-peasy. I walked in, gave my instructions for the day, kissed her and was pretty much shoved out the door by the lady working her room. Then I calmly walked out, went to work, and made it through my day without much worry. Yeah, today, not so much. I'm totally going to pin the blame on pregnancy hormones, but I bawled like a freakin' baby. Fortunately I made it out to the car before I had my meltdown, but either way, I was still inexplicably emotional over the whole thing. When several of my co-workers asked about the drop-off after I got to work, I started tearing up again and finally had to just tell them to ask me after lunch when I had a better handle on the situation.

I did call and check in at lunch, and Jody picked her up around 3:00ish. According to her teacher, she did very well. They said she "didn't cry very much," but that she didn't really nap much either. I'm not terribly surprised, I'm figuring that it's going to take a while for her to get used to sleeping in an open room amongst 7 other kids. But I'm just thankful we both made it through the day relatively unscathed, I'm just afraid that tomorrow may be worse. The director mentioned that most kids do worse on the second day because they know what's coming (aka - mom's leaving for the whole day).

On our way out. I didn't really want to be in the picture, but someone kept falling down into a crying heap every time I tried to make her stand by herself for a picture.

Wishing for Summer

I won't lie, I've been absolutely dying to get some water toys for the backyard and bust out with the summer fun. Maybe it's because I'm sick of being pregnant, and the beginning of summer coincides with the end of my current largeness (And yes, I realize I still have a lot of growing to do. But considering how uncomfortable I already am, I'm NOT looking forward to the remainder of this.). But not only that, I'm excited for Taylor to finally be old enough to actually enjoy summer. Last year we discovered that yes, she really liked floating in the pool, but now that she's older it's way more fun to watch her actually get excited and enjoy playing in the water. I really wanted to buy her this beach ball/sprinkler thingie that hooks up to the hose, but due to my procrastination they were all sold out once I was motivated enough to actually go and purchase the damn thing. So, we settled for a glorified sprinkler instead. She was a little apprehensive at first (And ok, maybe it wasn't really quite warm enough outside to justify frolicking around in the freezing cold water from the hose.), but after a few minutes she got over her fears and went for it full throttle. Considering how little spray this toy actually produces, she did an impressive job of getting herself completely soaking wet. I'm thinking my next purchase will be another "mighty pool" (That's a reference from long ago, if you ever hung out with us at the trailer park, you'll know what I'm talking about.).

Ok, so what's the point of this again?

She stood there for literally about 5 minutes trying to decide what to do next.

Taking a break from the sprinkler to eat Dad's popsicle.

God bless iPhoto's retouching feature. Look Ma, no snot!

And, then she got the hang of it. Note our lovely brown grass because I refuse to let Jody water it, lol!

Beating the crap out of Daddy with a stick.

Yeah, I'd say she had a good time!