I got some flack about not updating my blog (yeah, I’m lookin’ at you Cindy! )… so here goes.

The weekend of 1/21-1/22- I can’t exactly remember this far back but I’m pretty sure we did pizza on Friday night… oh wait, now I remember.  I was chatting with Lisa in the afternoon and she asked what our plans were b/c John was going to a work happy hour so she was alone for dinner w/ the girls.  So they headed out to Exton and we got pizza from Rocco’s and ate at Karen’s house.  She actually has a dining room table so we could sit down rather than cramming around a tiny kitchen table at our house.  Plus it’s a nice change of pace for SKylar to go to grandma’s house rather than always being at our house.  Then on Saturday morning it snowed so Karen came over to watch Dakota for us while we went out and played in the snow with SKylar.  WE probably only got a couple inches but we had a good time playing in it.  Here’s Skylar all dressed ready to go out:

And here’s 1 picture I snapped from inside the house before I went out and joined them:

We mostly took videos of Skylar in the snow so not very many pictures.  That Saturday night my parents were babysitting Ellie and Hannah for  Lisa and JOhn so we met the 4 of them at a restaurant for dinner.  We were quite the group of 5 adults and 4 kids- luckily they had a nice back room area where they stuck us and we were alone for the most part so we didn’t bother the other patrons with our noise levels   On Sunday Chris went with his mom to his grandfather’s house to continue cleaning it out.  Skylar, Dakota and I hung out at home.  I asked Skylar if she wanted to go to the mall to the playground or to the store and she said “No, stay home”- so we did. 

Nothing too exciting happened during the week that I can remember.  Oh wait- how could I have forgotten?!?  On Sunday AM I had the TV on and heard that JoePa had passed away that AM- so I called CHris to update him.  I was glued to the TV for a couple hours watching all the coverage on it.  Skylar finally “saved” me by begging to turn Barney on.  For some reason, she’s on a Barney kick right now and that’s pretty much all she wants to watch.  I don’t mind Barney or the other small dinosaurs but the kids on that show drive me nuts.  They totally over-act and over-dance and are just kinda annoying.  But Skylar’s enthralled by them so I let her watch.  Gah.  It’s either Barney or Angelina Ballerina (“Ballerina” as Skylar calls her) and she’s pretty whiney too.  I think my faves are Sesame Street and Thomas- but Skylar’s kinda over those shows.  I also like Sid the Science Kid but Skylar doesn’t enjoy him as much.  Maybe they’re a bit too old for her still- she does enjoy the dancing and music on Sid sometimes though.  1 day they were doing yoga on Sid and she asked me for a yoga mat so she could do yoga with them.  They do yoga at school every other Thurs so she’s had some exposure to it- and they have mats at school which is why she wanted to get one out.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a yoga mat so I tried to find something else she could use.  She didn’t want to use a towel so she actually found a long thing of bubble wrap and now pretends that that’s her yoga mat.  Plus it’s fun to stomp on it and run across it to make loud noises   She’s really starting to pretend and make-believe play these days.  It’s pretty amusing to watch.

OK- back to the week.  My dad came up on Monday evening again to watch Dakota on Tuesday.  Lisa decided she was going to head up to Penn State for JoePa’s viewing on Tuesday so she came by our house to pick up my dad to bring him with.  Sounds like they had a nice day.  Unfortunately, Skylar woke up with a pretty bad cough and not feeling well so we kept her home.  Her eye was pretty oozy like Dakota’s and Chris thought it looked like pink eye but I didn’t.  But by Wed AM when she woke up, I was pretty sure it was pink eye too so I took her to the dr on Wed and, sure enough, it was pink eye.  So she stayed home from school ALL WEEK.  And, let me tell you, she is definitely in the throes of her terrible two’s!!!  Holy crap that little girl can push our buttons and make us steaming mad   In fact, last evening I was feeding Dakota when Skylar realized she can climb up on the changing table by herself.  So, as she was doing it, I was telling her “No thank you- we don’t climb on the changing table” and she turned around and looked at me and then continued climbing up and then standing up on the changing pad on top!!!  Grrrrr!  So I had to put Dakota down, go pick Skylar off the changing table and make her sit on the couch with me not moving.  Grrrr.  Deep breaths… deep breaths…. as my dad reminded us this AM when she was pitching a fit over something (having her hair combed, putting her socks on, putting her shoes on, eating her yogurt, etc, etc, etc- get the picture?) “You’ll survive and get through this”.  Survive… barely.  But then, just as annoying as Skylar can be then she can be totally sweet and cute the very next second.  Jeckel and Hyde I tell ya!

OK- again, back to the week- sorry for the ranting.  Since Skylar had pink eye and we started the eye drops on Wednesday we couldn’t send her to daycare until she had 24hrs of drops in her eyes- so no school on Thurs for her either.  So I was trying to do a little work while helping my mom take care of 2 kids.  Ugh- what a week!  Chris helped out on Tues AM by staying home so I could do some work.  Also, on Wed night I met Carrie for dinner at a Mexican place in downtown Phoenixville.  I thought it was pretty yummy.  I haven’t been in downtown Phoenixville for probably 11-12 yrs (not since we were looking for wedding locations and there was 1 we checked out in Phoenixville)- they have lots of cute restaurants that I”d like to go back and try!  It was nice to get out of the house and meet Carrie for a girls’ night dinner.  THe only thing that’s hectic is trying to figure out Dakota’s schedule since I”m the only one still who can feed her.  I haven’t pumped enough milk to have a stockpile so that someone else can feed her- so I still have to work my schedule around hers or vice versa.  Karen, my mom and I watched some of the coverage for JoePa one evening- I think it was THursday?

This weekend we did a little more unpacking and organizing around the house.  I moved the computer from the dining room to the living room to start making that more of our “office”.   Now our dining room is starting to be ready for a table (coming from Grandpa Joe’s house) and china cabinet/hutch (also coming from Grandpa Joe).  But don’t worry- we still have plenty more boxes still to unpack!  Good grief.  We also decided to give all of Lisa’s baby clothes back to her so she can sell them in her consignment sale at the end of February.  We’re 99% sure our family is complete but if we do decided in the future that we need another kid, I figure we have enough baby clothes from our stuff and/or we can get stuff again at a consignment sale.  So this will clear out 2 boxes from Dakota’s room- sweet  

On Saturday, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Lex stopped by to drop off SKylar and Dakota’s Christmas gift.  Here’s Skylar enjoying it!

She immediately loved the horse and was rocking back and forth so far that I”m sure she’ll be falling off it sooner rather than later.  But she loves it and says “I’m going high!” while rocking on it.  And her feet actually (barely) reach the foot pegs.  Thanks Aunt Sandy and Uncle Lex!  Skylar loves her Uncle Lex- it was cute, the other week we were getting ready to go somewhere and Skylar said “I go visit Uncle Lex!”.  So we told her, no, we’re not going to visit him now but we’ll see him soon.  So luckily he was nice enough to come visit her

Oh, also this weekend I got a new double stroller!  I love it- it’s the Gracy Ready2Grow stroller and it has a seat in the front and a stand in the back where Skylar can either stand or sit on a little bench.  It’s totally flexible and can use a carseat for Dakota that just clicks in to the stroller.  I used it yesterday when I went to Old Navy with both girls to look for some shirts for SKylar.  She enjoyed standing on her little perch and being able to get on and off when she wanted to.  That could be both good and bad- sometimes it’s nice to be able to strap her into the stroller and have her in 1 place.  The stoller isn’t as big as a double stroller that has 2 seats to it’s a little more compact for wheeling around.  I like it. 

OK- I think that’s it.  Now it’s back to work.  And the weather is beautiful!  It’s about 60 degrees outside!  Why is it always nice on Tues, Wed, or THurs and not Fri-Mon?!?  Today would be a perfect day to play with Skylar outside and be able to get her out of the house and it’s not too cold for Dakota to be out there with us.  Oh well- you can’t control the weather… hope everyone’s hanging in there.  CAn you believe it’s February tomorrow already?!?

I haven’t updated my blog for awhile and so it seems 2 weekends have passed since I’ve given an update- heaven forbid!  Everyone must surely be wondering what in the world the Mellinger crew have been up to since then! 

Two weekends ago was when Kelly, Mark, and Lexi came up to PA to visit the McAdams and Mellingers.  They stayed with Carrie and Dakota and I went up Fri night to meet them at a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  Chris and Skylar stayed home b/c CHris doesn’t like Chinese and I didn’t feel like dragging 2 kids along by myself.  The Nagles also met us for dinner that night so we had quite the group at the restaurant.  Here’s a photo of the aftermath of dinner that I quickly snapped:

Saturday during the day the McAdams and Statzs came down to Exton to hang at our house for the day so they could see our new house and meet Dakota again.  We ordered food for lunch and dinner and spent the day playing outside on the swingset, inside with all the toys and then took a walk around the circle just before it was getting dark.  It was interesting/fun to see all the kids (Lexi- almost 4, Skylar- 2 1/2, Ian- 2) share (or not share as was sometimes the case) the toys and interact   A fun day spent catching up with good friends.  Thanks for coming to Exton to visit us!!

Lexi using Nittany as a pillow:

Sunday morning we went to the Picture People to have Dakota’s 3mo photo taken.  I had bought a Groupon for like $20 or something for about 3 sheets of photos.  And I was really going to try and be good and stick to ONLY buying those 3 sheets of photos.  But of course the photographer got alot of good photos and I really wanted them all- so I ended up (as usual) just buying the CD.  Darnit- I am really weak when it comes to photos and buying them all!!  I shared some photos on FB and sent out the album via Kodak Gallery but here’s 1 of the girls:

That following week went quickly as always.  I can’t remember anything special that happened.  My dad came up Tues AM to take care of Dakota b/c my mom had a church meeting to go to.  But then she came up that afternoon and stayed til Thurs.  Nothing too exciting with work except that it’s getting busy again b/c we’re doing more testing- hence I haven’t updated my blog b/c I”ve actually been super busy at work.

Friday I decided to go to the mall with the girls so Skylar could play on the playground or just run around the mall and get some energy out (it was too cold outside to take Dakota outside).  I thought it wouldn’t be very crowded except for the fact that I forgot that the schools were off Fri and MOn for MLK day.  So the mall was more crowded than I expected but luckily it was crowded mostly w/ moms and kids.  So Skylar running around wasn’t out of the ordinary.  She loves going up and down the escalator but, unfortunately, I brought Dakota’s carseat frame stroller with me- so I took the carseat out and left the stroller at the top of the escalator and went up and down a couple times w/ Skylar before the carseat got too heavy to carry and I told her we were done for now.  I should’ve brought the Baby Bjorn for Dakota to be carried in but I wasn’t thinking about escalators.  I thought Skylar would play on the playground but it was super crowded with kids and she wanted no part of the crowded playground- so we just walked (or ran in Skylar’s case) around the mall for about 45min and then had lunch at the food court.  SHe had a great time people-watching (so did I!).  Sometimes Skylar would stand on the front of the stroller and hang on to the carseat (kinda like you’re standing on the front of a grocery shopping cart) but then she’d tell me “I need to run” and step off and start running.  If only I had half the energy that little girl has   She was pretty pooped after 45min of running/walking around the mall though so it was DEFINITELY time to head home for naptime!

Friday night was the usual Rocco’s pizza and Saturday we went over to the townhouse to get 2 carloads of stuff out of there.  Man, we have ALOT more stuff still over there than I thought!  I thought we were doing pretty good in getting it all out but there’s still alot of crap   I only made 1 trip with Chris b/c Skylar’s in a phase right now where she doesn’t like for us to be out of her sight- so when we’d go upstairs or downstairs and she couldn’t see us she’d start crying and crying.  So I went home w/ the girls and Chris made 2 more trips back and forth with stuff.  Sunday Heather came over to spend time with me and the girls while Chris continued to work on emptying out the townhouse and organizing the basement.  We (me, Heather, Skylar, and Dakota) headed out for Chinese for lunch and then home for naptime.  Karen made a lasagna for dinner- yum!- and then, before we knew it, the weekend was over.  Boo!

On MOnday we just played at home all day.  AFter I was done feeding Dakota at about 10:30am I asked SKylar if she wanted to go out to the store or to the bouncy place- but she told me “No, stay here”.  Wow- I don’t think she’s ever told me that she wanted to stay at home before!  So we stayed home and played with bubble wrap (she had a great time stomping on the bubbles), did some yoga with Sid the Science Kid on TV and she also wanted to put pigtails in my hair like we do for her hair.  So I sat on the floor and let her comb my hair and “put 2 tails in” as she said.  It was funny b/c at 1 point I turned around to look at her and she had my hair rubberband in her mouth like she sees Mommy doing when I do her hair.  She definitely imitates EVERYTHING we do these days.  And she’s also using our words against us too- I forget exactly what she said at breakfast this morning but it was definitely something Chris and I tell her alot.  I commented to Chris “Jeesh, now she’s using our words against us”

Pop Pop came up last night to stay with Dakota today and then Gramma Bonnie came up at about lunchtime.  Chris’ neck has been killing him so I bathed Skylar last night before my dad arrived.  My dad got here sometime between 7 and 8 so at 7pm I told Skylar that we had to get a bath before Pop Pop arrived and she was excited to hear that Pop Pop was coming.  She started running towards the stairs to go upstairs for her bath but then she had to run back to the family room to tell Chris “My Pop Pop is coming soon!”.  Too cute.  Don’t worry Gramma Bonnie and Grandmom- she also gets excited when you guys come too.  This was just the 1st time that I could remember that she told Chris that so-and-so was coming SOON.  Please reference the above paragraph about her imitating everything we say these days.

And now it’s Tuesday and back to work time.  I anticipate another busy week so I’m sure it’ll be Friday again before I know it. No plans for this weekend yet- probably just more unpacking and organizing.  Hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks!

Hope everyone had a great holiday!  We did.  As I’ve said many times and I”m sure I’ll continue saying.. time flies.  I can’t believe it’s already January 2012.  Skylar enjoyed moving the star on her advent calendar.  At 1st she was kinda like “eh, whatever”- but then 1 day we forgot to move it and she pulled her stool over to it and moved it herself!  Here’s a picture of her standing on her stool moving the star:

We went to my Aunt Paula and Uncle Tom’s house in NJ as is a Condliff tradition- she hosts a gathering every Christmas Eve and I can count on 1 hand the times I”ve missed going to their house.  We (the Condliffs) always take up residence on the same couch

On Christmas morning Skylar really wasn’t all that interested in opening gifts.  Daddy tried to stuff Dakota in her stocking but she was too big.  So he just laid the stocking on top of her- and Skylar saw this as her opportunity to “pat” the baby.  She still loves putting a blanket over her baby dolls and patting them- we have to remind her sometimes not to pat Dakota too hard

We went to lunch with Chris’ grandfather at his place- I don’t have any photos from there.  We must’ve used only Karen’s camera.  We came home and for naptime I asked Chris to take skylar’s Xmas dress off and just put a t-shirt on so she didnt get the dress all wrinkle-y.  Well, when she got up from her nap, she didn’t want to put her dress back on.  So she was just wearing a t-shirt that was big enough to be a (short) dress.  And I had gotten her some dress up shoes for Christmas (which, in retrospect, they look like floosy (sp?) shoes but at the time I thought they were cute)- so she put those on and had her Santa hat on.  She was quite the vision.  So I decided to let her show up to Grandma’s house in her outfit so they could all get a good laugh too.  Here she is with Gramma Bonnie:

Of course I brought her dress along to change her into so she wouldn’t look like this the ENTIRE night.

We gathered at Karen’s house for Christmas dinner- again, Chris and Karen did an awesome job of cooking- thank you!  It was the Nagles, my parents, and us- just enough kids to make opening gifts fun.  And Skylar started getting more into opening gifts once she watched Ellie and Hannah ripping into their gifts. 

Then on Monday we headed to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Lex’s house to get together with them and Bret/Pub, and Chad/Beth and her 2 boys.  We had a great time- skylar LOVES all the attention they give her.  Monday night we got together with Scott and his family- as always, 6 kids makes for chaos.  We had a good time opening gifts and being together- and Skylar was REALLY starting to get into opening gifts by this time.  She was even opening mine and Chris’ gifts for us

And then we had a “quiet” couple of days during midweek to recover from the late nights we had Fri, Sat, Sun, and Monday.  Here Skylar is playing with 1 of her gifts from Grandmom- playdoh!  She loves play doh and making “snakes”- that’s her specialty.  This occupied her for (no joke) HOURS.

And last week was my “birthday week” as Chris and I celebrate.  So I had my dinners all planned out and where we were going to go each night.  We went to Longhorn Steakhouse- where Skylar liked playing w/ the napkin and Heather had a good time holding Dakota.

And we ordered sandwiches from Isaacs one night and 1 night I had a craving for Taco Bell.  And then on my actual birthday I wanted a cheeseburger and milkshake so we went to Ruby’s Diner and met the Nagles and my parents for dinner.  But wouldn’t you know it that when we walked in there was a sign on the door saying “our ice cream machine is broken- no milkshakes”- are you friggin’ kidding me?!?  That was my whole reason for going there!  What a bunch of crap.  So we hit up Maggie Moos after dinner for ice cream and I got my milkshake fix.

During the week we started un-decorating.  Boo!  But it is nice to re-claim the space taken up by the Xmas tree.  Here’s Skylar helping Dadddy vacuum up all the tree needles after he took it out of the house.  She loves helping! 

Removing the tree also made room for her new play kitchen from Grandmom- she loves talking on the cell phone that came with it.  And she’s really into pretending these days.  She’ll stand there and “cook” something for us and then bring it over for us to eat/drink.  So cute.

I also decided to put Dakota in Skylar’s play stroller- and she almost didn’t fit!  Dakota looks huge in this stroller.  Skylar liked pushing her around though- but I didn’t let her do it for long b/c she tends to run into things w/ her stroller.

New Years Eve- Chris and I actually made it up til midnight to see the ball drop- amazing!

New Years DAy- here’s Skylar watching the Mummer’s Parade.  She saw all the parade participants strutting w/ their umbrella’s and asked me for her umbrella.  So she had her umbrella and was strutting around mimicing the people she saw on TV- too cute.

January 2nd- happy 3 month-versary to Dakota!  Here’s her photo in the recliner. 

And Skylar really wanted to get in the pictures too- I like this one b/c Dakota’s actually smiling and they look like they love each other!

And now it’s back to work.  boo!  We did also have a visit from Heather on Monday, 1/2 to watch the Penn State football bowl game with us.  Thanks for coming over Heather!

This weekend Kelly, Mark and Lexi are coming up from VA to visit.  They’re going to stay w/ Carrie tho since she has more room for them to sleep.  We have plans to meet for dinner on Fri and then get together on Sat as wel so they can see our house and meet Dakota.  Should be a fun time.

Gramma Bonnie is here this week (and weeks to come too) to watch Dakota for me while I work Tues- Thurs.  Thanks mom! 

Hope everyone had a good holiday.

I was looking back over my last couple of posts… and geez, we’ve had a busy December so far!  But I love all the holiday activities and, for me, that’s part of the holidays.  We had another good weekend.  Saturday morning we got a phone call from Karen saying she heard the firetruck siren and thought Santa was coming around.  Sure enough, Santa came riding down our street (I was very impressed he even came down the circle!) to wave hi.  Skylar clung to Chris the entire time Santa was in view (1st coming up the street and then back again after turning around in the circle) and didn’t want to get down or wave but then as soon as he was gone she was crying for him to come back.  Too funny

After that SKylar and I headed to Aunt Carrie’s house for her cookie exchange party- we had alot of fun and got lots of yummy cookies!  I think SKylar’s lunch consisted of a couple nacho chips and about 4 cookies!  I think I win Mom of the Year award for that lunch, huh?  There was plenty of GREAT food there but Skylar wasn’t interested in any of it- just the cookies and playing with Ian’s toys!  Lisa was there with Ellie and Hannah so Skylar had a GREAT time playing with them again.  There were a couple other little girls and Ian there too but she wasn’t as friendly with them since she doesn’t see them as much.  Actually, the 2 little girls go to Goddard too- so she sees Hailey (sp?) each week (she’s in the sister-class to Skylar’s Toddler class- so they share some activities) but she doesn’t see Ian as much.  Plus it usually takes Skylar a little bit to warm up to everyone and start playing.  By the time we got home it was too late for a nap though so I fed Skylar some “real food” for a late lunch and then we just hung out for a little bit.  Dakota had gone with Chris and Grandma to Great Grandpa’s place to say hi and hang some pictures.  Sounds like they had a nice visit and Dakota downed almost all of the 8 ounces of pumped breastmilk I had sent- she drank 7 ounces!!!  Even at the height of Skylar’s formula-drinking days she barely drank more than 6-7 ounces.  I don’t want to jinx us or anything but it definitely seems like Dakota’s a better eater so far.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that this continues.  Of course we’ll probably have the opposite end of the spectrum problem and have an overweight (how horrible to say that!) daughter.  Although the ped assures me that there is no such thing as an overweight breastfed baby.  Anyway… we’ll deal with that later if we need to.  We decided to go out to Applebee’s for dinner but by 7pm it was clearly time for bed for a certain little girl who had had no nap!

Sunday after naptime we got in the car and headed down to Philly to meet everyone (Mom, Dad, LIsa, John, Ellie, Hannah, Heather, and Michelle) at Macy’s to see the light show.  There was a stinkin’ accident on the Schukyll (sp?) that made us miss the 5pm show so we waited arund for the 6pm show.  And of course Dakota needed to eat right around then so I missed seeing the 1st half of the show because I went to find a quiet spot to feed her.  But it sounds like Skylar had a great time watching the show with Aunts Heather/Michelle/Lisa and Ellie and Hannah.  Here are a couple photos:

Skylar wanted to get in the photo too

Staking out their spot on the carpet before the show:

Watching the show- Michelle is off to the right in the photo taking pictures w/ her phone:

After the light show we went to Chinatown for dinner- yum!  Here’s a picture of the girls playing with Aunt Heather’s iPhone looking at pictures after dinner:

1 more photo from the end of the night when SKylar was wearing Pop Pop’s hat:

And now it’s already Wednesday and only 4 days til Christmas!  Yikes- most of my shopping is done- just need a couple more small things that I should be able to get today or tomorrow.

Here’s a picture I took last night of Dakota getting into the Christmas spirit wearing the Santa hat I bought 2yrs ago for Skylar.  It was a little big for her and kept falling down over her eyes.  She sat pretty well in the Bumbo seat- her head’s still quite wobbly (hence Chris’ hand behind her in the photo) but she seemed to enjoy sitting there and looking around.  I didn’t get a picture of a good smile but I thought this one was funny of her tongue/mouth.

Today would’ve been Mike’s 66th birthday- happy birthday Mike!  We’re going to go out for dinner tomorrow night with Karen to “celebrate” his day. 

And then, before I know it, it’ll be Christmas Eve and we’ll be heading to Aunt Paula and Uncle Tom’s house for their annual party and then Christmas morning!!  WE’re going to head to Chris’ grandfather’s place for brunch/lunch with him and then we’ll all gather at Karen’s house for dinner later that afternoon/evening.  I’m looking forward to it!  Now I just have to wrap the gifts…

Merry Christmas since I”m sure I won’t post again before then!!

Skylar, Dakota, Karen and I met Lisa, Ellie, Hannah, and my dad at Longwood Gardens last night to see the Christmas displays.  We had a great time and it wasn’t SUPER cold like the last time I was there (probably 10yrs ago or more!).  It was cold but not freezing.  Skylar loved running around with Ellie and Hannah and seeing the Christmas trees and the lights.  But her favorite part was probably the trains they had set up.  They had a display outside that had about 3 or 4 trains and then a smaller display with a Thomas the Tank Engine train running on it.  She could’ve stayed there for hours watching them!  Then when we went inside again to see the music room display they had another train in there that she could’ve stood and watched for hours too!  She loves her trains…  Here’s a random picture I snapped of Skylar where I thought she looked cute riding in the car with her sunglasses on and eating her puffs- just chilling looking out the window.

We had a good weekend.  Chris, unfortunately, got sick on Thursday so he was out of commission on Thurs and Fri.  It made for a couple long days for me with taking care of the girls myself and only marginally taking care of him.  Oh yeah, and throw in Nittany in there for some extra fun too.  Good times.  Luckily Chris was feeling better by Saturday morning.  We had a birthday party to go to for a mom’s group friend of mine- her son was turning 1.  They had the party at a place called “Romperoo” in Glen Mills- it’s kinda like a My Gym place.  They had music instruments to play with, toys to climb on, a ball pit thing, a parachute to play with and bubbles.  Then pizza for lunch and cake afterwards.  Skylar had a great time and it was nice for me to see some of my mom’s group friends who I haven’t seen in awhile.  I’m hoping to get back into the swing of going to exercise class in January- assuming I can manage to get myself and the girls out the door by 9am to get to class!  Wish me luck.

Sunday we decided to take Skylar to visit Santa at the mall.  I was interested to see how she reacted to him.  I honestly can’t remember if we took her last year to see him or not with all the chaos of moving and all.  This year she liked seeing Santa… from afar   When it came time for her turn to sit on his lap, she wanted nothing to do with it.  She was clinging to me like a barnacle!  So what they were able to do was have her sit on my lap and Santa scooted forward for the picture to make it look like she was sitting on his lap.  Nice!  But she did manage to warm up to him enough to tell him Merry Christmas and a couple things she wanted for Christmas (with some prodding from me)- and then thank you and bye bye.  And then we had dinner at the food court as a treat.  Here’s Skylar “patting” Nittany (instead of her usual baby dolls) before we went to the mall:  Doesn’t he look like he’s enjoying it so much

Dakota had her 2 month checkup last week.  She weighed in at a whopping 11lbs 13oz and was 23″ long.  That’s the 75th percentile for weight and 60th percentile for height.  Wow- she a giant compared to Skylar!  Literally.  She’s already half the weight of Skylar at 2 months old and about 10-12inches shorter.  She has started smiling and “talking” more- not so sure she’s doing the “cooing” people talk about but she likes to make her noises.  Skylar definitely loves holding her.  And she even picked up a burp cloth 1 afternoon and put it over her shoulder like she sees Mommy/Daddy doing and asked to burp her.  So I put Dakota over Skylar’s shoulder and took a picture- it was funny to see how big Dakota looked compared to Skylar!

Only 12 days til Christmas- craziness!  Where does the time go??

Happy belated 2 monthversary to Dakota!

And a “funny” one of her when she was getting tired of posing for photos:

We went to get our Christmas tree tonight- here’s Skylar “helping” Daddy get the tree ready for the stand:

And 1 of Skylar getting into the Christmas spirit:

We had a good weekend- Friday afternoon we put some Christmas lights out in the trees in the yard.  Then on Sat AM we saw the Coatesville Christmas parade- Skylar LOVED it.  She cried when it was time to leave   On Sunday my mom came up in the afternoon so she could watch Skylar that night for us so Chris and I could go to a “remembrance service” at the funeral home for Mike- it was very nice.  They had a Christmas tree out front and had doves with your loved one’s name on it- you put the dove on the Xmas tree in remembrance of them- very touching.  Today we went to HAvertown to go to Connie’s (my sister-in-law) grandmother’s funeral- we had met her several times and she was a very nice lady.  My mom stayed with Skylar and we took Dakota with us in case she needed to eat.  She was nice to us and slept through the entire service!  We stopped by Lisa’s house to say hi to them briefly before heading home.  And then tonight we just went and got the Christmas tree- we took Skylar with us while Gramma Bonnie stayed at home with Dakota.  A great weekend!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

 

Hope everyone had a nice holiday- we did!  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day so all the photos were on Karen’s or my dad’s cameras…  we had dinner at Karen’s place.  It was Chris, me, the girls, my parents, Karen, Scott and Danny and Abbey.  Unfortunately, the other kids were sick so Connie stayed home with them while Scott and Danny and Abbey were able to make it to dinner.  We missed Mike during the day- I’m guessing we’ll miss him at every holiday from here on out…

Chris headed over to Karen’s that morning to help put the turkey in the oven- he took SKylar with him so she could see the turkey “fly” and join in the fun of preparations   Sounds like she had fun.  I stayed home to feed Dakota.  Then Chris brought Skylar home for naptime and my parents arrived at about 11am.  We hung out during naptime and then went over to Karen’s at about 4pm-ish after Skylar woke up from her nap.  It was a really nice evening- Chris and Karen did a WONDERFUL job on the awesome meal- thank you!!!  Because of Dakota and her feeding schedule I really didn’t do much (OK, I did nothing) to help with dinner this year- I felt like a bum   A picture of Skylar all dressed up for Thanksgiving:

We also had a great extended weekend.  Fri and half of Sat we went over to Karen’s and picked up her leaves- using the blower for the leaves is alot easier than raking! Skylar had a great time playign with Grandmom both days!  And Dakota was nice and slept in her carseat for most of the time.  Fri night we had the required Rocco’s pizza for dinner and then Sat night we decided to go crazy and go out to a restaurant!  We went to a place called Brickside- LIsa had given us a gift certificate for the place for my birthday last year so it was high time we finally got around to using it.  It was a really nice place- Chris and I had only been there 1x before- 8 yrs ago for a brunch after Scott/Connie’s wedding.  Skylar, unfortunately, was a pain-in-the-butt 2yr old and was itchy and scratchy during dinner.  We made the mistake of letting her sit in a booster seat at first- and she kept standing up, leaning on Grandmom, etc.  So we finally just asked for a highchair and strapped her in.  I totally expected a meltdown when we put her in it but she actually didn’t put up a fuss at all… go figure.  She’s so random sometimes about what makes her pitch a fit these days.  Case in point- she absolutely loves standing on a stool in front of the kitchen sink and “washing dishes”- I put the water coming out of the faucet at a very slow drip and that can entertain her for HOURS!  But when I tell her water playtime is over she absolutely throws a temper tantrum.  But then other things that I think she’s going to pitch a fit about (the higchair) don’t bother her in the least.  Oh, the fun times have begun!  She’s definitely testing her limits with us these days.  Fun stuff.  Patience, patience, patience!!

Dakota’s doing well- still nursing like a champ.  On Thurs I stood on our scale at home with Dakota and then by myself to see how much she weighed- according to our scale, probably a little under 11lbs.  Our little chunker   Recently it seems like at the 9 or 10pm feeding she’s very agitated- her arms and legs are very stiff, flailing all about and she can’t stay latched on very well- I”m not sure what the heck is up with that… but I’ll have to ask the ped next week at her 2mo appt.   Speaking of the little chunker, it’s almost time for her to eat again so I have to keep this short.

Sunday AM we went to JCP to have our Xmas picture taken.  I wanted the 1st appt of the day so we wouldn’t be all backed up- but that meant a 9am appt!!  Holy early!  But we did it- got there a little before 9am- the doors weren’t even unlocked yet!  Skylar cooperated pretty well and we got some really nice pictures!  I pick up the CD on Fri so I’ll have to share some photos then.

This Saturday we’re hoping to go to a Christmas parade in Coatesville- we’ll see if Skylar enjoys that.  She has enjoyed all the Christmas lights so far.  She loves seeing the Christmas trees- it’s cute to hear how she says ”Christmas trees”- I’ll have to try to catch that on video for posterity.   Speaking of how she talks- she’s quite the talker these days- almost using short sentences!  And her speech is improving too- she now pronounces Ring Around the Rosie properly- I miss the old way she used to say it- so cute!

I”m going to head down to Philly to see the light show at Macy’s with Heather and Michelle on Sun, 12/18.  Not sure if anyone else is going to join us (Lisa/the girls, my parents, Karen, Chris, etc).  Maybe we can even hit up Chinatown after the light show too!

Here are a couple recent photos- Chris putting the swing together for a 2nd time and Skylar helping him:

The 1st time Dakota was in a real outfit (vs just a sleeper)- her eyes look funny here:

Checking out her big sister:

We gave Dakota a bottle this past weekend- she did really well with it.  She had had a bottle 1x while we were in the hospital so this was her 2nd time.  She took it like a champ:

Skylar being a helpful big sister with Dakota in her carseat:

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!!  I”m looking forward to the upcoming Christmas season!

 

A cute picture from dinner tonight- Skylar decided she was a superstar and needed to wear her sunglasses while eating… so none of her paparazzi would recognize her while she was dining.

And another cute one where she was playing with her puzzles:

Let’s see… what else have we been up to since my last post?  Chris went to CO for work for Sun-Wed so my mom came up and stayed with me.  My dad came to visit on Sunday as well since he hadn’t seen the girls in awhile.  Sounds like he had a nice trip to Spain too.

When I last posted, I said Skylar was sick- well, it turned out it was Croup.  Yuck.  She woke up Wed night (or was it Thurs?  I can’t remember at this point!) and was coughing and couldn’t breathe and that scared her so she was crying and almost screaming which just made it worse… so we took her to the dr the next day and he gave her some steroids to open her airways so she could breathe.  She still has a cough but it’s definitely not the barky cough of Croup.  We were desperately trying to keep Skylar away from Dakota too so she wouldn’t get anything- and we were hand-washing freaks for several days.  Knock on wood- it seems like the Croup has spared Dakota.  Dakota has a small cold right now (runny/snorty nose, sneezes, coughs) but nothing too serious.  Definitely don’t want a little 7wk old baby getting sick!

I really can’t think of anything else too exciting that we’ve done.  We’re all pretty much sick battling colds right now so we’ve been trying to rest and recuperate whenever possible.  Maybe we’ll get some raking done tomorrow…

The last time I updated the blog, HB had been to the vet to have her ultrasound and they found a tumor in her kidney.  We had the appt w/ the neurologist on Tues and he immediately told us she was in severe pain just upon looking at her.  He thought it might be any of 3 things or a combo of them- a ruptured disk in her spine, an infection, or the cancer.  He said there were 3 tests he would recommend- aspirating the tumor to see what it was (malignant, etc), a myelogram, or an MRI.  But he agreed with the other vets and said HB was a complicated case b/c of the tumor and the obvious pain she was in that didn’t seem to be connected to the tumor.  He said the myelogram would give the most info so we decided to go ahead and have him do it that day.  He said we’d know results by the end of the day.  We left HB with the vet and headed home.  And, sure enough, it was cancer.  The dr could see a tumor in the 2nd disk of her spine- and since it was in the bone they couldn’t do anything about it.  This was why she was in so much pain and was standing/walking to oddly.  So he told us to just “make her comfortable” for whatever time she had left and gave us a prescription for oxycodone-  but we were able to use some leftovers that Mike had.  Unfortunately, that medicine didn’t do anything for HB’s pain and it was just horrible to see her in such pain.  Tuesday night Chris had to go back to work and I was upstairs feeding Dakota and HB was under the bed and she let out this horrendous cry/yelp of pain.  It scared the crap out of me and was just the most horrible sound.  She must’ve moved in a way that just sent pain coursing thru her body- poor brown dog!!!  All day Wednesday was just awful for her too.  The vet said to give the oxycodone every 6-8hrs but I was pretty much giving it to her every 5hrs in hopes of helping ease her pain- but it just didn’t seem to be doing anything to help her.  At one point she was in so much pain that she wouldn’t eat the pills wrapped in cheese- that’s when I KNEW she was in really bad shape- HB NEVER passed up an opportunity for cheese!  I had to pry her mouth open, put the cheese in and then help her swallow it.  Heart breaking.  Chris and I had talked either Tues night or Wed AM and we knew the end was near for HB and we said either Thurs or Fri we’d probably end up taking her to the vet- and Chris was thinking more Fri b/c he doesn’t work in the afternoons.  But by Wed afternoon, I called Chris and told him that I was going to call the vet and make an appt for Thurs b/c I just couldn’t take another day of watching HB in such pain- it was just too much for both her and me!

Last night was just awful for us knowing that it was HB’s last night with us- CHris pretty much slept on the floor with her.  Again, at about 1 or 2am-ish when I was feeding Dakota, HB cried out in pain so I made Chris get up (he slept thru the noise b/c he’s so tired and has a cold) and sit on the floor with her to comfort her.  From that point on, Chris slept on the floor w/ her to try to comfort her.  Unfortunately, she was in so much pain there really wasn’t any way to comfort her.  Chris called the vet this AM to talk to her to just make sure there wasn’t anything else we could do for HB and when she said there wasn’t- he made an appointment for 10:30am for HB.  Holy tears flowing from Chris and I.  Our poor Honeybrown!  Our 1st fur-baby.  It was just so unbelievable to us that we were losing her.

I remember my mom saying that their vet said (when he was talking about Sage) that if a dog’s cancer is aggressive, you’ll know within 2 weeks whether he/she is going to live.  In retrospect, it was about a 2week ordeal for HB from the time we noticed that something wasn’t right until today.  It just seemed to happen so quick!

To make matters more complicated, Skylar came home from school yesterday w/ a low grade fever and then woke up this AM feeling worse- cough, a little higher temp, scratchy throat.  So we called Karen to ask if she could stay w/ the girls while we took HB to the vet.

I’ve heard from Lisa and my mom about the experience of putting a dog down and let me tell you that it’s definitely really hard when it comes your time to do it.  Chris and I went thru an entire box of tissues from the time we left the house til we came home.  It was actually quite a peaceful process though- the vet gave HB a sedative which pretty much put her to sleep and then she gave her the drug that stopped her breating and heart.  We said our tearful goodbyes and then left HB there w/ the vet to be cremated.  We’ll pick up her remains next week. 

Sometimes when HB was in pain these past couple days she would just wander around limping and with her back horribly hunched up.  Yesterday she was finally able to lay down in the living room for a couple hours so I brought Dakota and the tummy time mat out there and spent several hours with HB- just petting her and trying to comfort her.  I also found her photo album and looked thru all the pictures from the time Chris 1st saw her at 9 days old to when she was about 6 and we got our digital camera and stopped printing pictures.  Reminiscing… what a great trip down memory lane.  Our crazy Honeybrown- how she would do her “butt scoot run”, going to Chatfield Reservoir to swim, all the hikes we took, snuggling on the couch as a puppy and older dog (before we got the new couches and the dogs weren’t allowed on the couch), etc.  Oh how we’re going to miss our crazy brown girl!

And interesting note from the vet was that she said that sometimes when dogs get sick and are in pain, they act like babies and are in your face alot.  That made me think back to a day about 2 wks ago when HB was just driving me up a wall- she was my constant shadow, when I was sitting on the couch she’d sit in front of me and just pant… just generally driving me crazy.  So much so in fact that I made Chris take her with him to his mom’s house 1 day so I could get some time away from HB.  Now I”m wondering if that wasn’t the start of her pain and she was trying to tell me something… hindsight of course.

The vet also asked how Nittany was treating HB- she said sometimes dogs will act more caring towards the sick dog and cuddle up next to them.  Not Nittany- he pretty much was a bull in a china shop when it came to HB- when we’d let them outside, he’d just push right past her.  Or when HB would be standing in the middle of the hallway hunched up in pain, he’d walk right by her and almost knock her over.  It made me want to just stick him in a closet somewhere so he wouldn’t hurt HB anymore than she was already hurting.  When I told the vet this, she said “Well, maybe that means he won’t grieve as much”  This is 180 degrees different from how I thought Nittany would be acting.  I’m not sure if I told the story of Nittany and HB at the groomers the last time but Nittany pretty much freaked out b/c he was in a crate and HB wasn’t with him.  So I just always asumed that if HB went 1st he’d go crazy like that too.  I will say that he hasn’t been eating well since HB has been sick- so maybe that’s his way of mourning.  Who knows… they’re dogs.

I feel so bad for Chris though- 1st he loses his dad to cancer and then 6 wks later he loses his dog to cancer too.  I mean, she was both of our dog but Chris got her 1st as a puppy.  Here are some of the last picturese I took of her:

From 11/3- you can see part of her shaved belly from the ultrasound.

 

 

 

From 11/5- me trying to comfort her during her pain.  It would get so bad she would shake and quiver.

 

Finally able to lay down but you could tell she was still in pain from the awkward way she was laying:

When we got home from the vet today, Skylar asked “Where’s Honeybrown?” and I told her “She’s up in heaven with Pop Pop taking a run or fetching a ball with him”- that’s the image I like to keep in my head of the 2 of them up in heaven together having a good time.

Some other photos from this past week- Lisa came to visit on Friday.  My mom came up Thurs night to spend Fri-Mon with me because Chris was working alot of hours and then was going to be working on the weekend and then helping his mom put the plastic up on their porch on Sunday.  Thanks Mom for coming up and giving me company and helping with Skylar and Dakota!!!

Me with my girls:

Grandmom with her girls:

Grandma Bonnie with a snoozing Dakota:

We’re going to miss you Honeybrown!!!

 

 

Happy 1-monthversary to Dakota!  Hard to believe it’s been a month already- still no sign of a routine yet other than eating every 3-4 hrs and sleeping in between feedings.   Dakota had her ped appt this AM- she weighed in at 8lb 5oz and was 21 1/4″ long.  We’re VERY happy with her weight gain!!  She was 5lb 15oz at her 2wk appt and so she gained 2lb 6oz in 2 wks.  The avg weight gain is 1oz/day and she gained a little under 2oz/day- sweet!  So she was in the 30th percentile for weight and about the 20th percentile for height.  She’ll be passing Skylar in height/weight before we know it

My dad left today for his trip to Spain to visit Cindy, Sergio, and Bella and meet Alex.  Hope he has safe travels and a good trip!

In a follow-up with HB- Chris took her for an ultrasound today and the dr saw a mass/tumor in her left kidney which is most likely cancer but they’d have to do a biopsy to determine if it’s malignant or not.  However, the vet couldn’t figure out why she has these episodes where she just stands in 1 spot staring at anything/nothing and doesn’t move.  So he suggested we could take her to a neurologist (who even knew there were neurologists for dogs?!?) to see if the cancer has spread to her brain and is causing this.  He also said that if we did the biopsy they could determine if the cancer has spread past the kidney which will help determine what our next steps (if any) might be.  This was pretty much my worst fear come true- I was HOPING it was just arthritis but my hopes didn’t come true.  So now, unfortunately, it’s most likely going to come down to a money-issue for how much we do for HB.  This sucks so much.  I made an appt w/ the neurologist for next Tues for the initial exam and consult- so we’ll see what he says and go from there I guess.  Keep your fingers crossed for good news for poor ‘ole HB!

Here’s Dakota’s 1-month photo in the recliner:

Hope everyone’s having a good week- happy hump day!