Carnival 9.22.18

I organized a carnival for one mom group I'm in. The RSVPs were low so branched out and extended it to the 2nd mom group I'm in. I already wrote about the organization of it so this is just about the event. The date wasn't really picked based on when I knew people could attend but a date the park had rental open. I was even checking many parks but they were so booked up.

Most of the photos weren't taken by me but were on my camera so I'm including them.

Set up was a little hectic. No matter how hard I try, I can't get everything done before an event starts so we were still setting up when people started showing up. Then Dave had a lot more prep for making food than I anticipated. Our can opener wouldn't work on the nacho cheese so then he tried to use a knife. It broke the knife but he did eventually get in. Then we had to heat the cheese on the grill then transfer to the crock pot.

I was amazed how many kids played the games and didn't take the tickets for playing the games. They just had fun playing.

Miles played some games and couldn't throw far enough when standing on the line so he just bent down and moved the tape line 8 inches closer. He was so cute doing it.

I liked the photo booth frames and so did a lot of people. There are many more pictures but just including ones here I now I can share.

It was a fun event. I feel like people liking it made all the work worth it. Too bad it wasn't a better date when more people could attend.

5.9.18 Roadtrip Day 9

I wanted breakfast but it was raining so Dave wouldn’t go while I packed up.

The rain stopped by the time we were ready to leave. I went down to get a cart and they don’t let you take one up. They send someone up so I had to go back up and wait for someone. We had them store our luggage until later in the day.

We headed to the bus stop. It was a 10 minute wait until the next one came. We wait and then it’s a trolley not a double decker bus. Dave wants to wait for the next one. They are supposed to come every 20-30 minutes. Dave goes to get some sort of breakfast. He comes back and feeds the kids some apples and I see he has some fruit and a sandwich. He’s starting to eat a sandwich and then eats some cheese out of the fruit tray. He’s also giving the kids fruit that it’s almost out. Then he gives it to me. I did not even know that it was MY breakfast. So I was so annoyed since I was already starving. The kids ate all the fruit and some of the crackers and cheese. I got some crackers and cheese. Then to make matters worse the bus that should come every 20 minutes did not come for over an hour. The kids were beyond done.

waiting

Then on the bus it’s a challenge. Miles wants to stand. We are starving.

We make it to the Aquarium finally and have to eat there. The food sucked and was overpriced. It took forever. We did not arrive until 1:20. We had left the hotel before 10 am!

Then we had to rush and barely had any time to spend at the aquarium after we were done eating. We had spent about a half hour eating. The kids enjoyed looking out the window at the water so eating took a long time.

We watched a dolphin show. Miles really enjoyed it but also liked touching the people sitting around us.

We left by 3:15 to try to go catch the bus. We left that early knowing we had to get the car by 5.

Miles fell asleep right near the end of the bus ride. He woke up after a minute but then he was back to sleep. We got off the bus a stop early because the guy took a restroom break. Miles stayed asleep. I was holding him and pulling the wagon. That was a real struggle. Dave took over pulling the wagon. It was still so difficult to hold Miles. I kept repositioning. It was so hard to carry the dead weight. We made it to get the car with 17 minutes to spare. Good thing we left the aquarium early.

Then we had to go get our baggage from the hotel. We got it at 4:57 and had to get it by 5. 

Then it was a real struggle driving out of the city.

6:12 PM - We stopped at a super charger for about 15 minutes.

Then we decided to stop at a famous pizza place. It was one on the outskirts of the city and it kind of had bad reviews but we took our chances. It was one they have everywhere but somehow this one had bad reviews. Giordano’s

Well the waitress was so busy so someone else got our drinks. She brought 4 glasses filled to the brim. That is instead of bringing 2 full glasses (but not that full) and 2 kid cups!
The bathroom stall was out of TP.
The fires were under cooked.
The pizza was good.

At dinner some boy thought Ella looked like a princess and asked his mom if he could say hi to the princess. Ella was shy.

We decided to get a hotel super close instead of drive further. We went to Aldi .3 mi from the restaurant and then we went to our hotel about a minute from that.  (We paid at Aldi at 8:32.)

We snacked in the hotel room but Miles wouldn't stop playing with the hotel phone.

10:16 PM Ella is in bed with me. Miles is finally asleep. Dave is snacking. I’m trying to use my computer but since Ella is with me I won’t do much.

The hotel fridge was nice. But the room A/C sure sucked. I set it to 64 degrees and still after 2 hours it was only down to 75 degrees.

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Rereading my notes sure makes me think how much stuff was difficult and annoyed me on the roadtrip.

5.8.18 Roadtrip Day 8

Since I have so many pictures I'm just going to put a few in between the text and then going to put the rest at the bottom.

I woke up at 7 AM. I was finally out of bed at 7:10. I went to get my toothbrush and as I walked in I saw Miles had his eyes open. He saw me and immediately stood up. Dave woke when I was talking to Miles. After not even a minute out of the pack n play, Miles says “more cashews”

7:56 Ella woke up.

We went to breakfast. We left and walked 2 blocks then Dave realized he didn’t know where to go and we should have walked in the opposite way because he couldn’t find a good breakfast place the way we were headed. We walked many blocks past where we had dinner to get to breakfast. I felt like it was long then we still had blocks to go. Ella walked the entire way. Miles walked a lot and I carried him some. It’s a long way to walk for such little legs. The kids were pretty good just slow and I was still annoyed with it. Ella only ate 1 bite once the food arrived. Miles barely ate and just wanted butter. He saw the 2 scoops of butter I moved and thought they were ice cream. Then we had to walk super long again to the hop on hop off bus stop.

We got on the bus right away so that was good. We got off at the first stop at Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). My ears felt weird going up the elevator. The kids loved looking out the windows. We’d look for a long time out a window then move a couple windows down and look for a long time again. In the area where you can stand in front of a skyline on the wall to take a picture, Ella decided to take off her shoes and do ballet on the little stage. She didn’t want to get off to give other people a chance to take pictures. On the way down my ears felt worse and were echoey for quite awhile.

We went to the bus stop to wait. Lots of people were waiting so then when we got on we did not get a seat on top and had to sit on the main floor and you could barely see out the windows. It was very hot too. Dave was so annoyed that we didn’t get to sit up top. I felt like it was easier to contain Miles down below. After 1 stop there was room up top so we got to go up. That sucked for the kids. Miles and Ella sat with me in the 2 seats (for all 3 of us). After Miles was very difficult for awhile he decided to give up fighting back and fell asleep on my lap. We had been discussing how I’d take Miles back to the hotel and Ella wanted to come with me for nap instead of go and do stuff with Dave. Dave tried to ask her if she’s go with him and she yelled no and it woke Miles. That was a 3 min nap for him! I was so annoyed. He was so annoyed. He was crying and so difficult. He just wanted to sleep. I was back to having to squeeze him to stop him from squirming and standing. Ella was always wanting to stand up and she wasn’t allowed.

Dave got off the bus at the planetarium. We stayed on what felt like forever to get to the stop close to us. We went down to the main floor after a bit because it was far too hot. The kids were hungry. Snickers were not a good idea because the chocolate melts so bad. But it was basically all I had left.

Then we walked ~2 blocks from the stop back to the hotel. They were pretty good on the walk

At the hotel a guy from Pittsburgh asks about the Steelers because of Miles’s shirt. At Willis Tower a lady talked to us about liking the Steelers, too.

2:55 We returned to hotel room. (3 of us since Dave was still out.)

We didn’t have time or the ability to get a real lunch so we had snacks in the hotel room. Miles had cashews and chips. I had chips and an oatmeal cream pie. Ella had chips.

3:32 Miles was finally in the crib. (He fell asleep pretty quickly.)
Ella rested lying down for a little but then got hungrier and we shared a cupcake.


I rested in bed with only some interruptions from Ella. It was so relaxing to be able to rest.

Dave decided to get hot dogs on the way back so he could bring us back food. He got fries and hot dogs but when he came in Miles was sitting in his crib. Then crying for like 15 min happened. I just couldn’t console Miles. I think 1 min before Dave got back, Ella woke up Miles when she ran through the hotel room but then he just didn’t cry or anything until Dave got back. Miles liked the hot dog. Ella liked the fries.

Dave wanted to go to a candy store or for ice cream. Ella didn’t want to go. Then Dave showed her pictures and a picture of a banana split got her interested so we went. I got a Milkshake. Dave got a cone. And then we got a banana split. Ella liked Dave’s cone. Miles liked my milkshake. Dave ended up eating most of the banana split since nobody else would.

Then we went to a candy store. It was in a mall in the same building as Macy’s. It was on the 7th floor. Wow did the kids go insane wanting stuff. I didn’t get a single picture because it was too hard to handle the kids and make sure they didn’t stick their hands in the candy or taste stuff.

We took a wagon and the walk to and from these places was purely amazing. Pulling a wagon was sometimes tricky to turn bends.

I got Miles to bed. He was so tired but didn’t want to go to sleep. Then when I was reading to him, he saw the cashews. That did not go over well. I offered him one but he wanted the entire container.

We waited a few minutes until he was asleep and then Ella and I headed to the pool. We had to leave the room through the room he was sleeping in.

Ella and I swam for about a half hour. There are signs not to take pictures in the pool area but I took one before we went in and in the elevator so I’d know how long we swam.
We got back, showered, and then it was almost bedtime.



Ella got under her covers at 10:04

2019 Week 3/52 Photo

It was bed time for Miles. Ella said she was getting him ready for bed. Next thing I know, they are both sitting on the chair in the living room together.  I walked in to find them chilling together.

Photo Taken January 14, 2019

29 Weeks (January)

I don't know how I gained 1.6 lb since yesterday. That makes my weight gain a ton for this week.  Now I weigh .4 lb more than I weighed at 29 weeks with Ella. My starting weight was 1.6 lb lower this time. I weighed a lot less at the start of pregnancy with Miles and I gained more by this point. I ended at roughly the same weight. The last weekly weights are both 6 days from when I actually gave birth but I think I ended at roughly the same weight and gained 42 with Ella and 50 with Miles.   I do keep eating when I'm lightheaded. It never fixes it so I don't know why I keep thinking that I'll eat more.

My inner thighs/groin have given me some pain this week when I overdo it. Sometimes I don't think I overdo it but then it hurts a bit. Then they bother me all day and night. Turning over at night apparently I don't do it right and my groin hurts a lot.

Ella tried to block so many pictures today

I pulled out the bin of baby clothes and bin of baby toys that were underneath the steps and they are now super handy in the closet. I didn't actually look at the clothes yet though. I have more boxes of baby clothes I should pull out.

I keep wanting to do so much before this baby comes and then I keep getting sick and then lightheaded. It's misery. I've wasted so much time when Miles and Ella are at preschool because I can't function.  I did have 2 days this week that I wasn't lightheaded but then I got hit with being sick and lightheaded on top of that.

The comparison pictures aren't the best. The angles are off and the one with Ella is a bit fuzzy since I had to crop it from a big collage.

Size of baby: Butternut Squash, 15.2 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 2.5 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I have gained 22.8 lbs overall with a 3.8 lb gain this week.  I gained 1.6 lbs in the past day so I think something is off.

Maternity Clothes:  I wear maternity tops daily and athletic pants that aren't maternity. I'm avoiding wearing my XS pants since they are a bit tight now going up. But my Medium pants are still pretty darn loose. Some maternity shirts are too short so I have to retire them.

Sleep: Sleep was even worse this week. I have had trouble falling asleep. Then I sleep horribly and toss and turn a lot. Then when turning over my trigger/realize the groin pain then I'm cringing. 

What I miss: Sitting with my legs crossed. Reaching for things while sitting. I miss running.

Symptoms: My back is sore. I'm lightheaded. I'm not sleeping well.

Best moment this week: Running on Tuesday (I couldn't think of a best until I wrote about Exercise and realized the run was in fact this week.

Looking forward to: Coming up with a name. Or maybe deciding on a name. Names are hard.

Exercise:  I ran on Tuesday and that pretty much broke me for 2 days. My groin hurt so bad I barely could sleep. The actual run was so fun and I wish I could run more. I really needed that run. I miss running. (Oh I better go back up and put that I miss running.) I really want to work out 3 days a week and I am failing miserably with being sick and lightheaded.

Same this time: My back hurt all three times. My groin hurt this time and with Miles. I didn't write about it hurting with Ella but don't think it did.  Maternity shirts are too short this time and with Miles. Apparently boy names are hard and we had a tough time last time too.

Different from last time: I didn't seem to mention being so lightheaded either of the past 2 times.

29 Weeks with Ella
29 Weeks with Miles

2019 Week 2/52 Photo

Dave was watching TV and Ella decided to cuddle with him. Then a little bit later Poly decided to join them.  She was there for awhile. After a little longer she repositioned to be more lying on Ella than Dave. It's the first time Poly ever lied down on Ella.

Photo taken January 12, 2019

4.18.18 Moving Day 3

The last day in our house then to my parents house.  Ella was starting to be sick. She actually fell asleep at a restaurant so that's when you know it's bad.  My mom said she will always remember her birthday dinner and how Ella fell asleep. 

I don't even remember this but apparently Ella also fell asleep on the family room floor.

Ella not looking so good.