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Friday, May 27, 2011

Residency is over!

Yesterday......I officially graduated from my NNICU residency.  And so......tomorrow.....I work my first day on the floor.....with my own assignment.....and no preceptor.  I have mixed emotions of excitement....and scared out of my mind.  

I had class for the past 2 days....and took my final yesterday morning.  After work- my residency class (me and 8 other girls) and a few nurses from the unit went out to dinner to celebrate.  The girls stayed the night with my mom and Geoff was able to take off of work a little early to join me.  It was a good time, but I was a little worn out from the week.


I came home to find these flowers on the kitchen table that Parker had picked out for me.  (I did not ask her to pose with the flowers.  I got the camera out to take the picture of just the flowers, and she propped herself right up beside them.  I thought it was so sweet because she was so proud of them.)







So wish me luck!  I'm excited (and relieved) to be finished with the residency because now I will have no more classes and be able to work my schedule....which is only 3 days a week.    Just ready to get settled into our new schedule.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Our Day and Our Caterpillars

We had a good 'pajammie' day at home today.

I made the girls 'muffin tin' lunches...(strawberries, raisins, peanut butter crackers, cucumbers from our garden, and vanilla yogurt.


This is my 3 year old's face when she was SO very disappointed in the cucumbers being on her 'plate' because she "does not like cucmbers!'  

She's never had cucumbers.


Grace's lunch.  Everything the same minus the raisins.


She seemed happy about it.


Her smile.....or her attempt at smiling....just cracks me up.





Sweet, sweet girl.



We have a winner with the peanut butter crackers.



She is messy, to say the very least.



She doesn't really throw a fit if she does not like something on her plate like her sister does.  She just merely sets it off of her plate.  Either on the table....or on the floor.





And one last picture of big sis.....giving me a 'stop taking my picture' look.  One day she'll appreciate it though.  Right?


Grace's mess.



I am linking up with Muffin Tin Mom for Muffin Tin Mondays.  Click on over to see other great muffin tin meal ideas!




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In other news......we got our caterpillars in a week or so ago.  They looked like this.  They were quite a bit bigger than they were when we got them last year......



 This morning at 8:47 I took a picture of all of the caterpillars.  I do not know if these caterpillars are on steroids, or what....but they just seem to be growing so much faster than last time.  I am sure they are not, I am just not here everyday to stare at them like I was then.

Anyway- the point of my story is that this morning they were all taking position in their 'J-shape' and then form a chrysalis.

This was my picture at 8:47....only the 1 on the right is a chrysalis.  Can you see the others in the J-shape?


And this is seriously 3 hours later.  They are all (minus 1) a chrysalis!


The lone caterpilliar.....

It is really amazing to watch this process.  If this kind of transformation takes place in these creatures.....it is only a smidge of an illustration of what goes on to form a human being.  What a miracle.  Seriously.

Guess we'll have butterflies in a few days!  I had ordered the caterpillars thinking that would jump start me into getting lessons together for Parker and to get back in the swing of things, but I have been lacking.  My NICU residency ends on Thursday so I am hoping to get settled into our new normal soon and get back to doing our 'fun' learning.  Hoping... being the operative word here.  ;)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Our day in Instagrams.

We woke up bright and early!

Grace had oatmeal, strawberries, and yogurt.  (again- she smiles by saying "chiz!" and closes her eyes).


Parker had Rice Krispies and strawberries.



We played outside for a bit then woke up Geoff.  He made eggs and sausage for us.  And to our surprise (and enjoyment)....the girls pretty much entertained themselves for almost an hour while we ate, picked up, and even finished up the blog post from earlier.

We had lunch outside.....the weather has been so nice.  This is my favorite weather and I am trying to enjoy it so much because I know the heat will be blazing soon.

Sister was just reaching over and grabbing Parker's food right off of her plate!  And Parker would say {oddly{, "That's ok.  She can have my food."  Whatever.


After we lunch, we played for a bit.  Then nap time for Grace and 'quiet time' for me and Parker.

After nap, we headed to Target.

I put Grace in this big girl seat thing that holds 2 kids for the first time.  She liked it ok.....but I really think they maybe should put timers on those cart.......then I'd set it for 15 minutes total....with a 5 minute warning beep........ because that's about all they allow!   But we made it.  And although I had a list.....I came up with 5 things that I forgot just on the way home.  (Yes- that's a soft pretzel in her hand that kept her entertained for about 10 minutes when she'd still ask for more, only to throw it on the ground).


Part of my bribing bargaining with Parker to get her to be excited about going to Target and being good, was that we could get her dress.  In my mind....I'm thinking- "we can get her a little spring dress....$10 tops."  Well.....she ran a little bit ahead of me and when she found what she wanted....she said loudly, "Mommy....come look over here.....Look!!  See!!! This is the dress I want."  Seriously??  This was a foo-foo nice dress that had the Disney princess's on it.....and luckily- it was 18 mo, not 3T!  haha.



So I quickly eyed the swimsuits and began distracting her.  And they really had some cute ones....but then she saw Little Mermaid and was sold.  It was $10 and I was going to get her another one regardless.  But the deal is.....I have already bought the girls swimsuits that I love.....and I already know that this dear, sweet 3 year old will probably only wear this Little Mermaid one for the entire summer......



When we got home.....she had to put on her swimsuit and open her new Little Mermaid toothbrush immediately.



I picked up a bit then got dinner together.  We had pancakes, yogurt, strawberry applesauce, chicken nuggets.....not all of us had everything listed, but you get the picture.  I did not feel like cooking and didn't want to eat out....so we made do.


Grace stacked her yogurt into her applesauce container......and she is such a messy eater (as expected, I suppose).....but it's because we cannot feed her.....not even help her.  She throws a fit if we even touch the spoon.  Not even kidding.  It bothers me at times, not just because of the mess....but because of how much we waist with all that she drops!  But she's getting better and I've discovered that if I give her a smaller spoon it helps a bit.  (On a side note....this is what we wanted, though.  With Parker, we caudled her and never really let her get messy.....and we thought maybe that's why she was a picky eater.  With Grace- we just let her have it....and if she doesn't like it...she'll either a) throw it on the floor, or b) if it sits on her plate long enough, I've learned that she'll sometimes just eat it).


We finished off the evening with a bubble bath (the girls, not me), calling Gramma, Word World, then THREE books.  We usually only do 1 and sometimes 2 if I'm feeling extra nice.  But tonight I was feeling extra, extra nice, and thought, "so what's 5 more minutes?"

Garden update.

Saturday was a beautiful day, but the morning was a little chilly.  We all headed outside to play for a bit and do some checking up on the garden.

This little missy was covered in sand.  Covered.  She was wearing a sleeper (bad choice, I know)....and somehow had a diaper full of sand?  She is a mess!  But I am really loving this age and phase that we are in with the girls.  They are playing together more and more and it's just fun seeing them together.


Moving on.

We are getting more tomatoes, but they don't seem to be turning red at all.  Anyone know about how long this takes?


This......this is the plant that I keep referring to as Parker's sunflower.......but- it is not.  I don't know why I thought it was, but I misunderstood, and it is really a corn plant.


I know I've said it before, but this squash is out of control.  I finally convinced Geoff to cut it back some because it was starting to take over our pickling cucumbers.  And while I like squash.....I really like homemade pickles!


The tomatillo plant is still growing and branching out, but I haven't seen it bloom yet.


Isn't it amazing how these plants grow?  This is the pickling cucumber plant......and it vines out and just twists and twirls around.  I really am in awe of such a thing.


We have lots of these little prickly guys, and I just keep waiting for them to get bigger.  I get worried that there is something wrong with them, but then not sure if maybe I am just part paranoid and part impatient.



THIS is the sunflower plant.  Geoff attached a stick to the stem to make it more sturdy.  I just didn't realize how big these get.



We have another corn plant back in this garden (not pictured)....and so we decided to transplant the corn plant mentioned above, to this garden so it would have more room to grow.





I thought I was doing good by getting out all of the weeds in this pot.....when Geoff got onto me and said I was pulling out some of the plants.    So he replanted them.  He calls this the 'Surprise Garden' because we don't really know what we are going to get.  They are from some of the seeds that we planted and didn't keep up with what was what. 



And we are starting to get some jalapenos.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Monday, Monday.

 I've started working the night shift this past week, so we have been trying to get adjusted to a new 'normal' around here.

I worked on Saturday and Sunday night, and so I came home this morning as Geoff was leaving to take the girls to the pediatrician for Grace's 15 month well visit (one month late)....and I was off to sleep.

I got up around 2pm.....played outside with Parker and Geoff for a bit while Grace finished up her nap.  Since this afternoon was our 'weekend'.....we headed to the harbor to eat on the patio (it was such a beautiful day here.....sun shining with a cool breeze).  I think Grace has reached the age where we might need to stay home for a while.  She is still into her food, but before the food comes and when she is done....there is no entertaining.  But we went early, so there weren't too many people there for us to bother.

After dinner we walked around for a bit.





There was a cheerleader whose parents were taking pictures of her......and so Parker would run up to a few things and pose and say, "Mommy- take a picture of me."   So funny.








And poor baby Grace.  I was sitting on a bench with her while waiting for Geoff and Parker to have a restroom break.....and plump!  Head first onto the unforgiving concrete.  She kept wanting to get up and down, up and down.....and I was helping her each time, but this time.....I was too late.  I felt (still do) feel horrible.


I'm pretty sure she's going to have a black eye from this.  ;(



Grace didn't cry for long and she was off chasing her sister.  But then we got into the car- and she was fussy again.


But it was nothing a limeade and ice cream from Braum's couldn't fix.



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