Back to Work

I started work at BioLife as a Plasma Technician (Phlebotomist) on Monday! So far, I have just been doing mandatory training such as how to react if there's a fire, and so on. But, so far, I love it! I take some tests today to finish off those parts of the training, and then I start the real training. I am very excited to get started! The people here are super nice and very helpful. Emily is being looked after by 2 wonderful women who switch off days. So far, it is working quite nicely. One of the women has 2 children, whom Emily seems to get along great with. The other woman is a grandma who will give Emily plenty of love and attention! I work evening shifts so Chad picks her up when he gets off work.

Emily's play group has been a bit of a letdown- of the 4 sessions, 2 have been canceled due to the polar vortex and the cold, and one had only 2 people show up due to a foot of snow the night before. Emily and I will definitely sign up again, and hope that the weather can be a bit nicer to us the second time around!!

As you may notice in the following pictures, she's not a big fan of pants. (I mean, really, who is!?) She has been slipping her pants off herself, and sometimes even figures out how to take her diaper off! That little stinker!

She seems to really like her new 4-wheeler that she got for Christmas!

Clearly she's ready for bed!

Her new bath setup! Her mini-tub was just getting too small, and I wasn't ready for her to have free reign of the whole bath. Another mom suggested this, and it works fantastic!!!

My Aunt Julie sent this to me yesterday- it was from the day that George came home from the hospital. I am so happy that Emily was able to meet George and vice versa. I still think of him often, and he will forever be in my heart.

Emily Update- 16 Months

Thought I'd do a monthly update from now on since she changes so much from month to month! Emily is as energetic as ever- she is like the Energizer Bunny! It is go go go until, suddenly, she's tired and promptly recharges her battery for a few hours! She is still napping twice a day, sleeps very well, is so smart, and extremely curious.
Age: 16 months
Clothes: 18 months, although she is starting to fit into a few of her 24-month clothes too.
Favorite Foods: She looooves pears and bananas, oatmeal, cheerios, Trix, carrots, strawberry milk (daddy's idea), noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches, goldfish.
Favorite things to do: She continues to love music. Her favorite song right now (unfortunately) is The Fox.  I highly recommend NOT watching it because what you see can never be unseen! She loves anything dogs. We got her Lady and the Tramp for Christmas, and I could just tell she was thinking, "All dogs all the time!!!!!" the whole time she watched it. She loves her new play group- she is very good at sharing- and she loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals. She loves to sit in her wagon that she got for Christmas (it is her home base) and she loves her busy board that Grandpa John made for her!  She loves to point out "Dawd!!" in all the pictures on our wall.  Chad gets a big kick out of it- me, not so much anymore! ;)
Favorite things: Her "lovey" is her favorite thing of all time. It is a little blanket with a bear head in the middle; similar to the one here. She cuddles with it every night. She also likes all the toys she got for Christmas!
Teeth: She has 6 teeth on the top and 6 on the bottom. 2 weeks ago, she only had 2 on the bottom, so she's been making a lot of progress! Chad says shes thisclose to being able to eat steak!

In other news, I am going to start my new job in 10 days! I am going to be a Plasma Technician at Biolife. I am extremely excited to start! We're still working out the specifics with daycare for Emily, but we've narrowed it down to 2 people. My job as a pharmacy technician was a good one, but the hours were limited, the pharmacy was the second busiest in the company (STRESS!!!) and, frankly, I was getting tired of customers yelling at me all day. It was definitely time for a change.

A Very "Merry" Weekend!

This past weekend, Chad's family was able to visit for our Christmas celebration. It was a fantastic weekend! Here are some pictures:

Christmas dinner! Turkey, steamed carrots, mashed potatoes, cookie salad, lefse, and rolls.

Fried turkey- Chad got a new turkey fryer, which he had been talking about for years! Absolutely delicious!

Her new 4-wheeler! She was a little unsure of it at first, but now loves it!

Putting together Emily's new wagon!

Emily waiting patiently for her new wagon to be installed!

Pigtails! The girls had fun doing her hair this weekend!

Sensory Play: Rice

Well, with the cold weather yesterday (and continuing today), I thought I'd finally let Emily experiment with rice.  A few other moms had mentioned how much fun their kids have with it, but to be honest, I was terrified! First, rice is messy. It gets everywhere. Second, their kids are a lot....calmer...than Emily. Yesterday turned out to be perfect; I had less than a cup of rice left, the floor needed sweeping anyways, and Emily was a bit bored. Turns out that she loved it! She sat still for over a half hour just moving the rice around, pouring it out, and feeling it with her fingers! Success! Half of it ended up on the floor, in her clothes, or in her diaper (!) but I was expecting that. Overall, it was very fun, although I'm still finding grains of rice on the floor! Here are some pics from the experience:

Minus 30 Degree Weather

The official temp right now is -23 degrees Fahrenheit. Absolute madness. I know that everyone following my blog is also dealing with this, but it will be fun to look back at this post someday! I had to let the dog out this morning- he didn't even want to go outside! I literally had to push him out the door. It is garbage day today too, so I took out the garbage- only to realize that our garbage service has been suspended till tomorrow due to weather. I don't blame them one bit! The schools are closed today and will most likely be closed tomorrow too. It is literally so cold that ice chunks have formed inside our windows:

So the game plan today is to hunker down, watch some movies, have a little too much hot chocolate, and try to forget the disaster that is outside.

Emily's 15-month appointment

Emily had her 15-month appointment yesterday, so I thought I'd update on the specifics from it!
She weighed in at 21.2 lbs! She gained 3 pounds since her 12 month appointment- she's definitely getting a little tummy! She also is 30 inches tall- 1 inch taller than her 12 month appointment. I told her about the concerns I had with Emily looking as though she walked a little bow-legged- the doc agreed that yes, she does walk a little bow-legged, but it will correct itself by the time she's 3. Everything else looked good. Then came the hard part: she needed FOUR shots! She's a little late in the game for her flu shot, but the doctor and I were in agreement that its better late than never. Poor girl! She, of course, cried and cried, but who can blame her!?