We shall call it ... the Whirlwind.

This is the worst amount of posting in a month I've done since starting this blog. To say that work and home life is busy is an understatement (obviously, hellooooo absenses). This will be a quick catch up, bullet post b/c that's about all I have time for. I anticipate (ha ha, anticipate) there being more time as the school year winds down to blog at night but for now, this is all I've got. So many things...so little time.

To start off, a family bullet:

• We are all SO VERY SUPER EXCITED to be able to welcome the newest Schmidt into the family in ... October 2013!! (LOL forever, not US...) Adam's brother, Tommy, and his wife, Carrie are expecting their first baby in October (great month to have babies!) and we couldn't be more thrilled. Carrie is feeling better with the 1st trimester behind her (or shortly behind her...). They are both thrilled and will make fantastic parents. And I will continue to wear my "best auntie ever" sash until the end of time. ;-)

The One with the Diaper Rash from Hell

• She's 16 months old. I still am sort of struggling with that and honestly, she's getting close to 17 quickly. She was just at the doctor for the worst/longest diaper rash ever. She "shrunk" 0.75" for length (they really need to measure better) and was 22lbs 3oz. Just a little peanut. A hilarious one, however.
• Diaper rash - UGH. We finally took her to the dr on Monday b/c it's NOT going away and it's really awful. She was waking up for diaper changes several nights in a row b/s she was SO sore/uncomfortable with even a slightly wet diaper and TONS of goo/creams to try to make her feel better. She has a few spots that have improved a little but still lots of bad. It's supposed to be markedly better by tomorrow but my hopes are low...she's on steroid cream that's "so strong" she can only have it applied 2x/day.
• Hadley is quiet. And by quiet I mean not spouting words out like Morgan did at this age. I think Morgan was using 2 word utterances by now and Hadley is still mostly repeating words we say, but jabbering ALL the live long day. It's only slightly concerning to me as a mommySLP but I'm working HARD not to compare her to Morgan at this age in terms of talking...they are totally different and Hadley is fine for now. I can't help but think that one of these days she's just going to spit it all out and make leaps and bounds of progress...but at least her receptive language (comprehension) is great so no worries there. Now to get Morgan to be quieter so Hadley can speak up...lol forever. 
• Hadley LOVES climbing. Ladders at the park, steps, etc. She continues to love this. She also has no fear and will go down any slide at the park repeatedly even if she gets hurt doing so (hello, first big fat lip at Weed Park last weekend). 
• Potty training - Hadley is doing well considering we aren't as consistent as we could be. When we get home each night this week, I put her on the toilet right away and then she's diaper-less the rest of the evening until bedtime. She thinks this is hilarious. She's only had one accident and that was our fault. Should make for an interesting weekend...
• Unless sick or covered in hell-bending diaper rash, Hadley sleeps fine and usually until 7am. If she's really tuckered out, she'll push it even later. ::ahem, Morgan take note, ahem::
• Hadley LOVES Diego and pretty much most of the other shows Morgan likes/liked. She "answers" questions when characters pose them and dances with the music all the time. 
• She is still all about babies and her princesses/castle. She also LOVES playing outside and doing whatever Morgan is doing while outside. This includes hitting the (hard plastic) softball off the tee and running to the bases. 
• Hadley is HILARIOUS in general and loves to make us laugh. She walks around with her Easter bonnet from Mary on her head/face and when she slowly/purposely runs into something, we laugh, and she thinks she's the greatest thing since the invention of the pocket-sized cell phone. 
• Hadley can handle a fork with the best of them although sometimes she feels it's much more important to use her hands. NOTE: How do we know that Hadley is enjoying what she's eating? She says "Mmmmmmmmmm" and sort of hums the ENTIRE TIME SHE'S EATING. No lie - meals can sometimes be very loud b/c Hadley is sitting in her chair, stuffing her face, saying, 'mmmmmm' while chewing. It doesn't sound possible but it totally is. Ask her.
• Hadley and Jessie both love sticks. When outside, one of the first things Hadley does is find a stick to carry around. Then Jessie steals her stick. Hadley finds a new one. Jessie eventually steals. Rinse, repeat. 

The One with all the Emotions (that come and go in 2-5 seconds)

• Oh, my Morgan. She's so loving and wonderful but is getting big and doesn't want to be held nearly as much anymore. Mommy sad face. Her vocabulary astounds us, nothing new there, but she's constantly learning new things and remembers them well. 
• She has a new love for her Cinderella doll and her carriage/horse get up the past few weeks. This led us to realize that some of her "unbecoming behavior" is likely stemming from boredom from her current toy situation - meaning we don't have enough toys for her to pretend with...or something like that. She's just outgrown a lot of the toys we have and it's time to beef it up with some big girl toys. Sigh. She's really growing up too fast. 
• Ohhh is this kid emotional. She can be having the best morning, hour, minute and suddenly it's tears and pouting everywhere b/c her Jessie looked at her while walking by (true story. tears.). But I still get the "MOMMMY MOMMMMMMY MOMMMMMMMYYYYYYY" when I pick her up every day and I'll take that emotional side of her every time (except when she makes me a little deaf-er).
• We all continue to love her short hair. It still makes her look way older and is a billion times easier to brush/maintain.  
• Still wants to go to the Family Museum in Bettendorf every day. If only it weren't 40 minutes away and cost a fair amount to get into the awesomeness (but mostly the distance). 
• Morgan LOVES dinosaurs and often pretends about them. Oh! New older kid toy(s) - dinosaurs. Duh. She is going to Dinosaur Camp in June and it can't come fast enough. I'm ordering her some as soon as this post is over. 
• She asks to go to swimming lessons all the time. She is in a 2-week straight class in June right after I'm done with my contract. She's going to love it. 
• We are signing her up for soccer for a summer session. Given how much she loves to run like crazy, we're thinking this might be a great fit for her. She also LOVES hitting the softball off the tee and running to home base (this involves running to the grass line of the neighbor's yard and back to the driveway - longest.base.run.ever.
• Morgan bought the Toy Story I DVD with her "spend" money for her first big independent purchase a while ago. She is currently working on saving $8 to buy the Prince Charming to go with her Cinderella doll. Note: Do no buy it for her. She's trying to earn it on her own. Note: Disney Store - don't hold out on me - you keep that PC doll on sale for the next few weeks. She's really close. ;-)

The One with all the Estrogen

• Still trying to keep up to the tiny army we made. I think I've made decent headway now that they're done being sick for a while, save for the Great Diaper Rash of 2013 and the hacking cough that may render Adam breathless.
• I'm down a bit of weight! I've got 3lbs to go for my OK! weight and 5lbs to go for my WOOHOO!! weight. Finally. Some headway. I'm hovering in/out of the last tens and soon I will hopefully never see the upper tens again. Evah. Now...I need to be more proactive about toning up...
• Loves sitting down after the girls go to bed and vegging out. I do this more than I should. I keep finding reasons not to do "stuff." I need to get over it. So tonight Adam ran first and then I ran (thank you slightly warmish weather and later sunset times). 
• I'm glad the school year is winding down. I'm so excited about most of my students' progress, but at this time of the year, I definitely have a few I'm feeling burnt out on. I love my students...but sometimes I feel ineffective and I'm not sure what path to take next. That's what summer is for - to think about what to do next.....LOL forever, no it's not. It's for relaxing my brain so I can do that thinking in Aug/Sept. Silly...on that note, one of my Kindergarteners told me she named the goldfish she won at the school carnival after me. Mrs. Schmidt the fish. Now that's just plain awesome. 

The One with all the Testosterone

•  Adam is my hero. He is thisclose to losing 20lbs since January unless he already has and didn't say. He's worked his @$$ off for it and looks amazing (well, more amazing than usual since he's always amazing).
• He's traveling a bit more now and gone 2 of every 4-5 weeks. The girls have been good and his traveling is getting a little easier each time in terms of workload...but we still miss him terribly, of course, and would rather he be home.
• Adam and my Dad (who came to visit last weekend) made some serious headway with our mess that was the tree line in the backyard. Dad burned TONS of random branches we had littering the area and overflowed our campfire pit with ashes. Morgan thinks it's the greatest thing that the ashes now look like a volcano after the rain and tells me daily to check it out. 
• He didn't have anything else to add. I'm jealous he can go work out over his hour long lunch, shower, and get back to work in time if that means anything. :) 

So there you have a quick update on the busy bees that live in the Schmidt house. Hopefully you'll see more posts sooner rather than later. Oh! And check out the blog Reasons My Son Is Crying because it's funnier the more pictures you look at.

The Post about Sick

About a week and a half/two weeks ago, Morgan started coughing. And coughing. And COUGHING. Then we had to go to WI and it got so bad that she threw up at dinner one night (out, of course). Thankfully we were able to self-medicate with leftover albuterol from Hadley's last coughing issues and by the time we left WI, both girls were on breathing treatments every 4 waking hours. No fun, but finally they started getting better by the end of last weekend.

Then Monday morning happened (thank God Adam didn't travel until Tuesday this week). The morning was going along as usual, Morgan up earlier than Hadley, dressed, I was about to dry my hair when I heard OH NO. OH NO. OH NO. Hadley was head to toe poop as was her crib. After scrambling, a quick bath, and quick assessment of her actual status, we took her to daycare with the understanding that Mary would call us immediately if she needed to come home. She was relatively happy and no fever so.....

I picked her up and Mary said she was not feeling well at all by that time. I gave her Tylenol, laid her down for a nap, and 40 minutes later, she was a new kid and fine. We sent her again Tuesday and she was good save for one poo-splosion requiring a costume change although she didn't eat much outside of pretzels. Today, she had another poo-splosion but thankfully, it was completely contained.

Now, why am I so worried, you ask? Because the kids at daycare have been going down, one by one, with diarrhea and vomiting since last week. First it was Scout (Hadley's BFF) last week, then Hadley's buns only (thank GOD no vom for her ... yet), and then a bunch today - Adele, Tucker, and Cooper. Adele is Morgan's BFF so I feel like it's only a matter of time ... please cross your fingers and toes and anything within reach that can be crossed and pray that Hadley's butt is the only issue we'll have. I know it's likely not going to go that way, but a mom home alone with her girls til Friday can hope, right? Right.

At least the coughing is better! No breathing treatments since late last week/weekend. Tonight, I was going to leave the humidifier off in Morgan's room but with the potential for thunder in all these storms, I thought it might help drown out any boomers. Tomorrow is weird and crazy b/c Mary needs the girls picked up by 10:40 so she can go to a quick (please be quick) doctor's appt so I can go back to work. Then the entire student body leaves to go to a visiting artist at the middle school so I'm planning on getting some SERIOUS paperwork done since I have some major deadlines coming up in the next week. Which means NO SICK GIRLS tomorrow so I can get back to school by the time my kids all leave...

Wish me luck!! I can deal with poop. It's gross, sure, but vomit...NOTHANKYOU. Thank you in advance for any 'no vom in the Schmidt house' prayers.

Happy Easter, Grandpa Smith!

To say it's been a long week from a week ago today would be an understatement. Last Wednesday, I received the phone call that surprised and didn't surprise me at the same time - my Grandpa Smith had passed away. This man was a walking miracle so many times over so it was a wonder his body was finally so very tired that he just stopped. He was rather upset that he was going to be too weak to go to church on Easter Sunday so he just took a different route, I guess. Doesn't surprise any of us one bit. ;-)

This news brought on a huge flurry of frantic packing and changing of plans which all worked out fine in the end. We worked on Thursday and then headed home to WI that evening since we both had off on Friday (Good Friday). We stayed through Tuesday, early afternoon, so we could attend funeral services for Grandpa. They were lovely, it went well, and while we were all so sad to say goodbye to such a fiesty old man who loved life, it warms my heart now to know all the things he doesn't have to deal with anymore as a result of his failing body.

The rest of the weekend was kept busy with visits, candy, and coughing. And more coughing. And MORE coughing....we tossed around bringing along the nebulizer/Rx along to WI b/c both girls seemed on the verge of ok but if there was one most important thing we packed, it was that thing. By Saturday, Morgan was coughing so hard/often that she got sick at dinner out with my dad and grandma. Within a few breathing treatments, she was still coughing but it was much more tolerable for her and she could breathe. Hadley started treatments as well on Tuesday morning when she woke up sounding very "croup-y." We're weaning them both off today (hopefully) and they will continue to get better. Morgan probably should have gone in for this cough. It was a bad one. But self-medicating and life circumstances directed us on this route and for now, it's working.

*I started this post last week sometime, I think...can't even remember that. I know I've been a terrible poster lately (if anyone is still out there) and will work on that. Trying. So here's this bad incomplete post and I'll try to get more done later while I'm not neglecting other duties and racing through the second Hunger Games book (these are so good ohmygoodnesscan'tputitdown). Toodles.