Wedding Weekend Pictures

Here are the pictures! Finally! Click on the link below and you'll get to see them (unless I messed up and didn't know it). The girls have been really good this week while Adam's been gone (since Tuesday) so I don't have much else to report. While they've been great, I'm still super tired from up too late, up too many times with a baby who likes to pull her paci out and then will it back in (which happens when mommy shows up), and up early all week. Can't blame it all on the girls. Enjoy the pictures and happy long weekend (almost).

Tom&Carrie Wedding Weekend Pictures

The newest Mr. & Mrs. Schmidt

A heart-felt CONGRATULATIONS!! to Tommy (Adam's younger brother) & Carrie as they were married this past weekend in a most beautiful weekend in all aspects - the weather was perfect (warm, but great), the wedding party looked great, no major mishaps that I was aware of, and of course, the bride and groom were stunning. Adam (best man) and I were particularly proud of the girls for being well behaved considering there was minimal napping involved (Hadley was the best cat-napper ever, ugh). Hadley of course was fussy when she was exhausted but who can blame her? So was I. :)

Morgan...ah, Morgan. The older of the two flower girls (the other was 21-month-old Alexis from Carrie's side of the family). And she (they both, actually) did AMAZING!! I hope someone was videotaping b/c I only got to see her from the back since I sent her on her way but ohhh...it was so cute. They held hands and walked slowly right to their daddies just like they were supposed to. They were the hit of the show until the bride came along just like it was supposed to be. :-D

Juggling twogirls and all that came with them was pretty difficult to manage that day while trying to get tons of pictures so my picture-taking suffered, but hopefully I'll find lots out there and get some loaded.

It was a GREAT weekend, it was an exhausting weekend...but we were so glad to all be a part of it (I was a reader, Hadley played the role of adorable niece #3 between the bride and groom and rocked it). I also want to THANK THANK THANK all of you who helped me/us out in any way with the girls. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciated it as I know things wouldn't have gone as smoothly without you. You know who you are and thanks again!!!

So all that said, CONGRATULATIONS again, Mr. & Mrs. Schmidt. Welcome to the family, Carrie!

(pictures to be posted soon once our stupid internet at home is not intermittent)

Squeals and Words

Oh my goodness, aside from all the crazy that was prepping for the wedding and end of the school year (this is ongoing), the girls have been a hoot lately and I'm sad that I'm not finding more time to blog about it.

Sunday when we were leaving the hotel in WI, Adam and I both thanked the desk clerk after Adam checked out. Morgan started to walk away with us, turned around, and very matter-of-factually stated, "I love you," and walked away. It was SO funny at the time and Adam and I cracked up the whole way to the car.

Hadley squeals and coos OFTEN especially when she's playing or hanging out by herself. She had a great ride home Sunday from WI and played with a given toy for 5-10 minutes at a time unless she dropped or kicked it out of her reach. Morgan shared her less favorite lovies and Hadley LOVED them. My new mission is to find a really really cute one like Morgan's bunny so she has something cute to lug around and not some ugly toy that was from a vending machine or something.

Morgan's vocabulary can be stunning sometimes - as in stuns me what she says. On Saturday, I had a few not-mother-of-the-year moments when I got stressed out and snapped at the girls when really, they did nothing (too) wrong. I apologized several times throughout the day and explained to Morgan that mommy wasn't mad at her, I was just stressed out trying to figure everything out and make the day perfect in any way from our end (or really, not cause anything bad to ruin/influence anything other than perfection for their day). So we're riding home Sunday and Morgan starts to get really upset that her hiney hurt (I think she had a little rash) so when we stopped, she was all out crying. :( Poor kid. So Adam grabbed her and took her to the bathroom since she had to go anyway and I grabbed Hadley to nurse. Adam came back later and said that on their way to the bathroom, Morgan looked at him with all these big tears and said, "Daddy, I'm sorry I'm crabby..." Awww, poor kid. She can be so sweet...

Hadley *just* started to like standing on my legs a bit more this weekend. She really enjoys her exersaucer still and even rotated it around a bit this morning while playing. Also, last night I was playing with both girls while Adam went to get the dogs and Hadley started to do some preliminary army crawling. She actually scooted forward an inch or two to reach her softball! Adam was pleased. :)

Morgan can pedal a bike now. Have I mentioned this before? She learned how the last time we were home and is able to do so fairly well as long as she's on a flat or slightly declined surface. She's so big! Also, she gets to go to Sunday School next year. Have I posted that already? Sunday school. Oh my goodness. I know that's not academic school or anything but that sure is close. :-/ Why do they have to get so big?

There are a hundred other things but I can't think of any right now b/c I'm having serious brain block from trying to remember everything that needs to be done by the end of the school year which is tomorrow for my 2nd district and Friday for my 3rd/last. Plus it's going to be HOT HOT HOT coming up (95 on Saturday!) so I'll be thinking of lots of fun things to do inside as well as how we're going to get that pool out for the girlies! :)

And we have a 5 month old again, folks

Happy 5 months, Hadley! What a big girl she's getting to be, too. Here are some highlights from the tiny one's world nowadays...

• Hadley now eats cereal, bananas, and just started "tasting" sweet potatoes. Tonight she almost loved her sweet potatoes mixed in with her cereal. She's trying her new foods at daycare in the morning to make sure it doesn't upset her reflux. I don't know how long we'll use this practice to start new foods since she's getting older, but for now, that's how we're doing it. She's not a champion eater by any means; however, she IS a champion spitter-outer. We're working on it. 
• Hadley's sleep schedule (well, not counting when they are sick) is now 7pm bedtime and this morning she woke up at 6:08am. She had been getting up as early as 5am the past few days so we are making bedtime later in hopes that wake time is also a bit later. ;-) Note: she was at 6:45p for bedtime or else we'd have a screaming child on our hands almost instantly. Some days she even slept until 7am with that bed time!
• She doesn't really roll over much since she had her first ah ha moments. She does like to get to her side while on her back and sometimes even a little further...but not quite all the way over. She's still iffy on tummy time. 
• Hadley hates standing. She loves her exersaucer. Hate standing means when we hold her and try to get her to stand at all. Her legs hold for a second and then she becomes wet noodle legs. I hope it's nothing to worry about. That's about all I'm worried about when it comes to her development at the moment...
• We are starting to sign with her now that she's eating. We'll be expanding it to other things too, but for the moment, she's getting most of her sign while eating. She's doing a nice job of watching while I sign unless her sippy with water in it is near...
• Hadley LOVES LOVES LOVES her sippy with water in it at dinner time. As in she shakes if/when I take it away and sometimes all out scream-fusses to have it back. She's not truly drinking out of it tons but she really likes to chew on it...Morgan didn't get teeth for 4 months yet at this age so is it teeth? Is it something new? Who knows. Either way, I'm in love with how she likes to hold it by herself (of course, with a little help) and will be happy when she's independent here (although she can't stop being my baby, mmmm-K?) 
•  Hadley now has liners (the flush kind) in her diapers since she's eating more solids. 
• Hadley loves to watch life going on around her. She watches Morgan all the time and is very grabby and exploratory with life around her. It's cute b/c her motor skills still have her reaching in slow motion except for when she grabs my hair. That happens in an instant.
• She's still the happiest baby I've ever seen. She smiles and laughs SO easily and it's really fun to tickle her until she almost pees her pants. My favorite is when she gets SO happy/smiley that she curls into a little smiley ball into whoever is holding her at the time. Aww.

That's our Howdy in a nutshell. Yes, we still all call her Howdy. Often. It sort of stuck since Morgan called her that from the get go. I can't imagine life without her and we love her to pieces! 

And a few quickies for Miss Morgan...

• Morgan has been sleeping overnight in undies for weeks and weeks now. No accidents to date and she's pretty good about calling for us to get up at night or in the morning when she has to go. Woo!
• She LOVES to be outside. She plays outside often at daycare and whenever it's nice enough for Hadley to be out if we're single parenting. 
• Morgan still love love loves her little sister. She wants to play with her and gets sad every time Hadley pulls her hair/skin/anything which happens often now since Hadley is grabber extraordinaire. 
• Morgan makes up her own songs to anything. Some of them are great, some could use some work. ;-) but all make her very much her.
• She's still learning learning learning. Mary told me today that she and a few of the other kids were playing out their own version of Team Umizoomie (a show she loves that teaches her lots about math) outside. This is another big step in socialization and play skills for her which is fun to see as she does less parallel play and more group play.
• Morgan continues to show a real interest in church, Jesus, and God. I asked if she could start Sunday school in the fall even though her birthday isn't until October and I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get her in since she's able to follow directions, wait her turn, etc, and I think she'd be ready. 
• She still takes 3 breathing treatments a day and needs them. They both get their last dose of ammoxicilin tomorrow morning (woo, one less thing to worry about) and Hadley is going to go to 2 breathing txs/day tomorrow, but we need to get more nebulizer medicine b/c we run out tomorrow for sure. 
• Morgan wants to run whenever possible. She just loves to be on the move and go fast, which her new Nikes (swoosh goes on the outside! when putting them on by herself) allow her to do easily. ;-)
• She's still in swimming lessons although we're going to take a break after this session. She really really loves being in the water and had a blast at her swimming birthday party for a daycare friend last weekend. 

We're so lucky to have these little bitty girlies. We love them to pieces and pieces and can't wait to see what the next month brings! Less than a month until mommy's "off" for the summer!

5 Months, hooray!

Polar bear friend 

Can you believe mom wants us to hug?!

5 months and 30 months (2.5 years)

On the mend

I would be lying if I said the girls were feeling perfectly normal again. They're not. That said, they are 1000x better than they were a week ago at this time when they were messes, each in her own right. They both still cough like crazy but those times are diminishing. Last night I only remember getting up once and I think Adam was lucky enough to not have to go up at all for the second night in a row which is good b/c now he's getting/already sick. Hopefully he won't get to the point that either girl got to, but he's dealing with a bad cough and nose ick. Today I've had a little drainage and my sinuses feel "funny" but nothing horrible...so here's to hoping I'm being dramatic and it's nothing but a passing seasonal allergy that will be done by tomorrow. ;-)

Both girls still get 3 breathing treatments a day, down from the 4-5 we had started last week. Both are still on ammoxicilin and actually, I had to call the doctor yesterday to order a little bit more for Hadley b/c she's either a pro at taking her medicine or a PRO at spitting it out. Yesterday morning was the latter of the two, little stinker.

I'll save a big update for Hadley until tomorrow when she turns 5 months (gasp...tear up a little...big girl...). I will also do a Morgan update soon. If I'm feeling super ambitious, maybe I'll do a double. ;-)

When it rains sick, it pours sick I guess...

Oh sigh...what an interesting 36ish hours it's been in the Schmidt house...

Looongggg stories short...ish...

Hadley went in to the doctor Friday b/c I didn't like the way she was coughing but more so b/c her matted eyes and super runny nose wasn't letting up. She'd been sleeping swaddled (as posted earlier) and in her carseat for several days at this point. A looongggg visit later (1.75 hours, to be exact) including a nebulizer treatment revealed that nothing made her better so she likely just had a bad virus. Fine. Same visit with Morgan (I asked her to check her ears - she's always got terrible wax and last time the terrible wax was hiding a TERRIBLE ear infection) revealed clear ears (after a little wax removal, shocker) and fine even though she had slightly matted eyes too in the morning and a bit of a cough.

Saturday - Hadley's eyes magically stopped being gross. She was still super snotty and icky but stable (no new, worse/better symptoms). Morgan was also stable (same symptoms, next day).

Sunday - Hadley stays on the mend with her eyes but her boogers won't quit and she's coughing more. Morgan was coughing the same and eyes were about the same.

Monday - Sent the girls to daycare even though it was questionable if we should. Mary said she'd call if need be (Adam was on call since I needed to be at my schools for meetings and seeing kids I've missed a ton b/c of trainings, a seminar, and a few assemblies) and after a call at lunch, it seemed things were ok - girlies with colds. I picked them up from daycare and Hadley was a snotty mess just as I expected and Morgan was happy but warm. As soon as we got home I checked her temp and sure enough, fever. We decided that Adam would stay home tomorrow pending how the night and morning went since I had to get my other school in on Tuesday along with an exit IEP meeting.

Tuesday - Morgan still had her fever despite having meds. Hadley was still a hot mess so we kept both girls home and since Hadley's cough was getting scary, the doctor was able to get them in at 8:30am before regular patent hours at 9. Diagnoses -
Hadley - Right ear infection and albuterol/nebulizer breathing treatments
Morgan - Right lung looked bad, chest x-ray, and boom. Pneumonia. :(

Both girls were put on ammoxicilin which seemed odd for Morgan's dx, but we went with it, along with Hadley's breathing treatments.

Wednesday - I stayed home with the girls today since Adam had an all-day work thing (he's still gone now and likely won't get home until the wee hours...Hmm). Anyway, Hadley was definitely on the mend today since she had lots of smiles (although was pretty fussy later in the day darn short naps). Morgan was feeling better since she wasn't sleeping as much as on Monday but boy oh boy, that poor kid and her cough. She even threw up when she was trying to take a nap b/c she coughed and gagged so hard. It took almost an hour of coughing before she stopped at bedtime tonight but I'm pretty sure she was so tired she was coughing in her sleep. I'm thisclose to taking her in again tomorrow b/c the only thing that is better is that she doesn't have a fever (although that started to come back mid-afternoon too and I got it early with ibuprofen).

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. We'll see what the night brings and how she's doing tomorrow morning. Since she didn't nap today (thank you stupid cough), she's exhausted. I'm worried about sending her back to daycare too early b/c she's going to play play play and not rest enough. I am terrified she's going to end up in the hospital even though we're a long way from that.

I'm exhausted so off to bed I go. It will be at least an hour before Adam gets home and I'm too tired to wait up. Please say a prayer for the girls if you have a second...