Ice Bucket Challenge

This ice bucket challenge is a crazy thing. It's been going around the internet for awhile and raised a TON of money for the ASL foundation. Our family has avoided being called out publicly but we finally got called out, or at least a few of us did. Both Dominick and I got called out to take the ice bucket challenge. Dominick was challenged by his Nani and I was challenged by my good friend Lauren. We both completed the challenge and decided to spread the wealth and donate to another good cause, Friends of Kids with Cancer. Let me tell you, it was FREEZING and Dominick hated it! He immediately started crying and ran inside. Once we got dry though he was pretty proud of himself. :)

Nick stood by and watched us get drenched in ice water and all he said after it was over is, Thank you for not nominating me!

Happy ice bucket challenging!

Dommie's New School!!

So I JUST realized that I never posted about Dom's first day of school!! OOPS!

So here's a recap. Dom's been in his school for exactly one month. And he loves it. He's already making a lot of friends and he's learning to spell and read already! He has homework every night which is an adjustment but in a good way. He also has a very set schedule which is different from his last school but I think that's good for him too.

Here are some pictures from his first day:

I seriously can't believe he's so big! But I love the school and I think this is a great place for him!

Routines

It's taking us awhile but I think we're finally getting into our routines. All of us. Life is a little crazy around this house most of the time but in a good way.

Dominick is in his new school and doing very well. It will be one month tomorrow. I'm so happy for him and love that he's learning so many things every day. I don't even mind doing homework with him because it means he's learning. He has friends and it seems like he's adjusting extremely well. My big boy is SO big!!

Annabelle has been in her school for about a month and a half. She's doing great too. When I drop her off now, she gives me a hug, then a kiss, then another kiss, then she waves goodbye and she's off. Breaks my heart a little but she's happy and that's all that matters. Her speech has improved but definitely still has room to improve so we're keeping an eye on it. We'll probably go to a place and get another evaluation done but I'm happy for her and happy that I'm understanding more every day.

Gretchen is ONE now!?! Holy cow this past year has flown. She's doing so many things. She can take about 3-4 steps at a time and I'm so proud of that big girl too! She's babbling all the time and for the most part a happy baby. She is definitely a mama's girl. More so than any of the other kids. If she can see me, and I'm not holding her, she's screaming for me. If she can't see me, she's fine. But I better not be in the same room. She goes to a sitter 1-2 days a week and to my mom's maybe one day a week and the rest of the time she's home with me. We're learning how to get things accomplished and still have fun at home. It's a work in progress.

Nick is pretty settled in at his new job. I think he's doing well. He's putting in a lot of time and effort so I hope he's doing well! He's been pretty stressed trying to make sure everything is perfect but I think he's settling in.

I am done with orientation!! I am officially an RN on my own! Yay!!! I go to work tonight and get to do everything on my own and I'm thrilled! I love what I do and I especially love getting to do it without a shadow, no offense to my preceptors!!

Nick's mom is helping us in our routine. When I work at night, I don't get home until 8 am the next day. Nick leaves for work at 6:20 so we have an hour and forty minute gap with no child care. She's been coming over in the morning and helping out. It's been amazing. I hope she doesn't get too tired of it!! Because we need her and love her and appreciate it a TON.

All in all, we are getting there. Just in time for fall. My second favorite time of year (after March madness, of course!).

Oh fall. That's another post all by itself.

But we're getting there. On another note, now that we're getting into a routine, I only have 4 more months on my 30 x 30...better get to work! :)

Happy Wednesday!!

Annabelle's First Day of School

TEAR!

I can't believe Annabelle is starting school! It's such a bittersweet moment. I'm thrilled to get to just have Gretchen at home. Being the youngest of three and the youngest by only 18 months, she doesn't get a lot of one on one time. So this is nice. But it's sad that my Belle-Belle is already in school.

This morning was her first day and she's joining in the middle of "spirit week". Today was pajama day. So her first day of school picture is pretty funny. She and Dom are in their PJ's and she looks so happy. Normally she doesn't want to leave in the morning, but this morning she was pulling me to the front store saying, "Go! Go! GO GO GO!".

When we got to school, Dom and I (and Gretchen) brought her to her room before going upstairs to Dom's classroom. She ran right in and made herself at home with the pretend house toys. She grabbed a baby and a highchair and literally couldn't have cared less that I was leaving. I tried to get a few kisses and I got NOTHING. But that's a good thing.

I then took Dom upstairs with one more glance at Annabelle and she was playing with another kid and having so much fun. I hope everyday goes this well.

Nick asked that I wait for him to pick her up today so he can come along so hopefully he doesn't work too late tonight (home past 7 two of the last 3 nights).

What a big girl I have. :)

Antibiotics...

It's never a dull moment at our house!! All three kids are taking amoxicillin now. We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday because Gretch has been pulling at her ears and Dom said his throat hurt. Dom had a throat culture done and tested positive for strept. Then Gretchen had her ears looked at and she has redness in one and lots of fluid in the other. So they both got started on antibiotics. Then they swabbed Annabelle just to be sure. She was negative. Then I got a lovely phone call yesterday saying that the swab for Annabelle that they sent off to the lab came back positive. So she got started on antibiotics too.

So two cases of strept and one double ear infection. Right on.

At least I can start them all on meds at the same time and be pretty confident that as soon as one is over it, they won't give it to another. That's what happened with the dreaded pink eye a few months back. And at Schnucks amoxicillin is free. So that's nice too...

Oh well. Here we go. Now let's just pray that none of them end up allergic to amoxicillin!

Blogger for the iPhone!

Maybe I'll be able to blog more now that I have the blogger app for the iPhone! I feel bad that I don't blog as much but I'm solo busy! We had dom's birthday a few weeks ago an it was great. I'm waiting to get pictures for family because my camera was missing that day but we had a blast, trust me! I'll try to update with a lot more as soon as I can. Until then ill give you little blurbs here an there with my new app!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

My little GENIUS!

So let's be honest. We all KNEW Dom was a genius, but now it's been confirmed! Dominick is a genius. Straight up genius. ;-)

We're trying to get Dominick into the St. Louis Gifted program. He had to get tested to see what his IQ is. He had to score at least a 125. We took him to the testing center and went to the waiting room and he was being weird. He was acting like he didn't know how to do things. He was asking us for help with puzzles and I was thinking "this is not going to be good!". But when we got called and went back to the actual testing area, he was very talkative. The man doing the testing told us that it could take anywhere from 20-45 minutes. Nick and I were nervous. It took the whole 45 minutes. We weren't sure if that meant that Dom was SO smart that he was just seeing how smart he was or if Dom wasn't showing how smart he was and it took so long because he was giving him more chances. :)

At the end of the 45 minutes, the man came back with Dom. Dom ran up to me and said, "I did a really good job Mama!!". We went with the man back to the room and he confirmed it! Dom did great!

Most kids Dom's age test between 90-110. Dom scored a 123 on verbal skills, 132 on non-verbal and 133 on spacial or something like that. Then there was another test that I didn't understand. And the scores don't average. I didn't get that either, but his final score was a 133! WOOHOO! Go Dom!

So he's officially eligible for the program! Now he's in the lottery. Let's just say some prayers that his name gets drawn so he can actually go to one of the two schools we picked!

Congrats Dommie Salami!

My Immediate Family Christmas

We always do our immediate family Christmas the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas just because the holidays get so crazy busy. This year, my sister and I took my mom to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox on Saturday so we did Family Christmas on Sunday.

It was a great time. We went over to my parent's around 3 pm. We did dinner first because I knew my kids wouldn't sit through dinner if we did presents first. We had a great meal and then did presents. All of these kids are so loved and spoiled that it's ridiculous. :)

Dominick got a ton of stuff on his Christmas list, including: new Christmas PJ's, a new "piggy bank" which is a big green dinosaur, a big boy green cup, a new puzzle, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and a ton of the Melissa&Doug brand wooden food. What a lucky boy.

Annabelle got a new baby doll, a baby stroller, Melissa&Doug wooden food, new Christmas PJ's, and something else I think, but can't remember...

Gretchen got new Christmas PJ's and a TON of clothes. Just what I wanted her to get!

The food was great, the kids had a blast, everything was perfect!

We gave some presents and got some presents but of course, Christmas is now all about the kids.

Here are some pictures of our day:

 Dad, Dom and Celia all opening a few presents

 Addie opening one of the presents from us, a bag full of baby accessories

 Annabelle looking at her new Christmas PJ's (which she's wearing today!)

 Celia opening her Lego Camper from Grandpa and Grandpa

 Celia opening her play-doh present that Dom picked out

 Gretch just taking it all in

 Angela opening her gift from us, kitchen stuff! 

 Andrew opening a present from Mom and Dad, a signed copy of Tony La Russa's book

 Another pic

 Grandma opening the Cookie Jar the kids made then

 Grandpa opening the calendar of the kids that Angela makes him and Mom every year

Annabelle playing with her new stroller and new baby that she named "LaLa"

It was a great FIRST Christmas. One of many that we got the pleasure of going to this year. What a lucky family we have. :)

Dominick's Christmas Show

Dominick was in his Christmas Holiday show on Dec. 6th. Yes it's been that long since I've blogged...Sorry!!!

It was the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. They all got up and sang their little songs and it was so adorable. We sat in the very back because we had both girls with us and wanted to be able to make a quick get-away if Annabelle was a terror but that wasn't necessary because everyone had kids there and basically all the kids were terrors!

My mom came to help and to watch Dom and he was so excited. When his group was up, we stood up to take pictures and record his class singing. I stopped recording in between each song but I wish I didn't because in between the two songs he yelled "That's my Mommy!!" and I didn't get it on camera!

I'll see if I can upload his class singing; I know I can upload the pictures I took.

 Dommie reading in his classroom before heading down for the show

 His class lining up to sing. He's in the middle, the second row from the top. He's wearing a white sweater vest. He's the cute one. ;-)

Just another view. 

 

After getting off the slide at McDonald's where we went for dinner to celebrate how good he did. 

Sorry for the shaking!! I took the video with my regular camera! 

All in all it was a great night and Dom had a great time. We are really happy with his school and he loves it. This was a great start to an amazing holiday season!

Too long

It's been way too long, but again, there's no way to catch up tonight. I'll try tomorrow, but that will be tough since I'll be home with all three kiddos tomorrow.

So instead I'll just mention the most important thing right now, Gretchen rolled over for the first time yesterday!! Yay!! :) She's getting to be SO big!

I'll try to post within the next few days to catch up on everything.

Christmas
Cousins Holiday Party
Gretchen's Newest things
Dom's school Christmas show
My work
My school
My hospital stays, etc
Addie's Scare on Christmas

So much to discuss! I'll try tomorrow, I promise!!

Catch up?

There's no way to fully catch up since my last post. Too much has happened. But I'll glaze over the basics.

First, I went back to the hospital. I got home from the hospital on that Monday. Had a rough Tuesday, an ok Wednesday, a great Thanksgiving, a rough Friday, a bad Saturday and was back in the hospital on Sunday at 2 am. Again, I did a million tests, and again I left with no real answers. The only thing that was interesting is that a spinal tap made me feel better. I was at the hospital from Sunday, very early AM until Tuesday at 6:30 in the evening. It was another long stay. And the worst part was I missed Gretchen's baptism!!! :( And I've still only seen 3 pictures. Nick's sister texted me 3 pictures, which were great, but those are the only pictures I've seen.

Second, Thanksgiving was amazing. We went to my Dad's side in the morning and my Mom's side in the evening. We were going to celebrate with Nick's family in conjunction with Gretchen's baptism, but I missed that. I'm sure it was amazing though as well. And that was the one day I felt good enough to eat!

Third, Gretchen is baptized! Yay Gretch! A big girl! And Dominick completely ripped up her baptismal certificate because he's very into ripping these days. So I have to get her a new one, but that's ok.

Fourth, I went back to work and I love it! I missed it so much!!!

Fifth, Annabelle and Gretchen are at a new sitter's. The old sitter, Stella, didn't have an open spot for Gretchen and it seemed crazy to send the girls to two separate places. So both girls are going to Karen's. And they love it! And I love that Karen charges by the day and not the week. So I stay home with the girls on the days I'm not working. So it's cheaper (although a little more stressful), but totally worth it. I think it's harder work than my work but I love spending time with my girls!

I think that's about it!

I'll try to be better on here, but it's tough. I'm getting ready for bed at 8 with the kids and exhausted by 9:30. But I'll try to get on here more!

Halloween

What a disaster! Holy cow, I was completely unprepared for what this Halloween was going to be like. We decided to do the trunk or treat at Dominick's school. The trunk or treat was from 6-8 and we were instructed to decorate our trunk and bring at least 300 pieces of candy. Of good candy.

So we got signed up. My mom and I spent two hours making Handy Manny tools out of cardboard for the car decorations. Then we went shopping (another story, but I got AMAZING boots!). Then I got the kids costumes together.

I was excited. This was the first year Annabelle would really understand and the first year that Dominick was REALLY excited.

It started off great! Here are a few pictures of the car and Dom and I waiting for Nick and Grandma to get there with Annabelle.

It started off great. But there were so many people there. We brought almost 500 pieces of candy. Again, GOOD candy. We spent like $40 something on just candy.

Then I got frustrated. I knew it was a community event, but I was thinking it would be more of just Dom's school and not every single person in the area. We ran out of candy in the first 45 minutes. And I don't mind giving kids candy. If it were all kids, in costumes, I would have been happy and even gone out to get more candy. But it wasn't. There were MANY "kids" over 18 there. A lot of people brought 2 bags for candy. One for them and one for their "kid in the car". Why was their kid in the car??? There was a couple who were walking around with their infant child, who wasn't dressed up, and they were asking for candy. Really?? Really???? Wait until the next day and buy a whole bag for 50% off.

I was mainly frustrated because I spent all my time and effort and a decent amount of money to make sure that Halloween was great. And instead of getting to enjoy it with my kids and family, I was trying to worm my way through a throng of about 500+ people, make sure I didn't lose my kids, and try and have them enjoy walking to the 25 cars that were there.

It was annoying.

After 6:45, we left. I wasn't going to try and get more candy while my kids waited in the car. So we left and went back to our house and then took the kids to the few houses that were giving out candy in our neighborhood.

Luckily a few houses were left in our neighborhood and Dom and Anna had fun.

I was so frustrated and tired at the end of the night that when we were all tucked in, I realized I didn't take hardly any pictures. I took no pictures of Annabelle in her full costume. I took literally NO pictures of Gretchen on her first Halloween. Bad Mommy...

Here's a picture back at the house of Annabelle eating some candy.

Doesn't she just look like trouble??

I'm going to have to get the kids dressed up again and just take a picture! oh well.

I know next year we'll just stay in our neighborhood. I'd rather do that. I would be less frustrated and I think the kids would have more fun.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend and it was stressful! :) but fun and totally worth it.  Luckily my mom met us there and that was a major life saver. It's hard when you are outnumbered by kids! Especially when one has to be held and another one doesn't talk but likes to run away!

But we made it. And Dom and Anna had a blast (Nick calls Annabelle Anna and I'm trying to go with it so she doesn't get so confused with having a million different names!).

We got there and it was PACKED. I swear, everyone was at this pumpkin patch on Sunday around 2. But there was a lot to do and Dom jumped right in. There was a small maze for kids with a bridge, a pole to slide down, a tire to crawl through and more. There were a few slides to go down. There were some hay mazes to crawl through (that were completely pitch black and I can't believe Dom liked them). There were also pony rides and swings and of course, pumpkins!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch!

Happy Halloween!

Pictures!

My grandpa holding Gretchen and talking to Annabelle

My little dare devil. She climbed up onto the coffee table 

at my parents house and was smirking as if daring us to tell her to get down...

Gretchen napping in the pack n play while I cooked dinner one night. 

It amazed me how close in size she and the doll were!

HAHA, I HAD to post this picture!

Cecilia is SO skinny and tall. Her pants can't even stay up. When this happened

I asked if she needed help. She said, "no". She was more concerned with playing 

than worrying about her pants! 

Annabelle, Dominick and Cecilia

Cheering on the Cardinals!

Go Cardinals!!!

Big girl Gretchen!!

My Grammie, Gretchen and me. 

Gretchen at 1 month

Dommie and Addie cheering on the Cardinals. 

I haven't hardly taken any pictures, but this is what I have. Hopefully I can add more to it soon!

Coming Soon!

When I have a second (no promises on when that will be but I'm hoping tonight or tomorrow) I have a lot of updating to do! :)

Gretchen Suzanne was born on Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 1:45 am. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20" long. I was able to successfully VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and we are thrilled. I want to write about my birth experience, Gretchen's stay in the NICU (don't worry, she's fine and home with the family where she belongs!), Dom and Annabelle's reactions, construction on the wall, our adjustments at home, her 1 week appointment, everything!

But for now, I have to go and clean to get the room ready for the wall (construction is starting whether I'm ready or not and I'd rather be ready!).

Here's a quick pic to hold you over until I can fully update.