Ahhhh Sleep!

Not because Atlas is sleeping, but because my mom kept the boys overnight last night.   Atlas is still waking up between 6-11 times, sometimes for an hour and a half at a time. Screaming.   We haven't held him over night in weeks, so it's not that he's spoiled, we're just not sure what's up.   On the  plus side, he's a happy baby during the day, and he's starting to play with his toys a lot more.

I've decided since the formula is working pretty well, that I'm going to stop pumping.  I've got more than 2,000 oz of milk stored in our deep freezer, so Jen's preemie twins get a whole lot of milk even though she's not breastfeeding.

Adam's interviews went very well recently.  He still hasn't heard about the job though.  On the plus side, he got a very good year end review for his current position.

We've had some crazy cold weather lately, snow, and wind which created some neat little snow ball things.  It's almost like we could make snowmen with what is left in our yard.

The boys have started playing together more.  I actually got 15 minutes of quiet time while Ares entertained Atlas with his Zoo Animals.

Atlas has started eating solid foods.  Kind of.  Here, he's eating peas, however, they did NOT like  his tummy, so we're back to organic rice cereal -  and that's it.  Yay.

I think this might be one of the last pictures I have of his long hair.   I was cutting Adam and Ares'  hair, so I decided to go ahead and cut Atlas' as well.  He was a trooper, and Adam attached the GoPro to the razor! haha!  The video was put to the flight of the bumblebee song and put on Facebook.  I'm not sure how to post it here.

Best Friends?   Probably not, with 4.5 years between them, but at least they can get along!

Our Luau was a huge success this year.  We had 62 people attend, which was a lot, but the house handled it fairly easily.  There was lots of food, LOTS of fun, and all of the kids behaved.  ALL of them, I think there were 18 altogether.  GO. US.   I believe this was the 4th annual.  We'll have another next January for sure!


(remember when I used to post every day?  Or every other day? lol, ahhh, I wish I could go back to that.)

What's Goin' On

So I guess I haven't really posted what's going on with our youngest recently.   We have had far too many months of Atlas screaming every minute he's not being held, and then half the time he is being held.  He doesn't take many naps at all, in fact, I'd venture to say he sleeps about 1.5 hours a day.

On Dec 23rd, we took him to a specialist who gave him Prevacid and a new prescription like formula called Elecare.  (I say prescription "like" because it's not sold over the counter, but insurance won't cover it.  It's about $39.99 for one small canister or $200 for 3 weeks of food (if I find a good discount or buy it on ebay.)   The guess is that not only is he allergic to milk products, but it's likely he can't have soy either.  

Right after the change, his reflux was worse than ever, but then he had a really good reflux free two days before he was in the hospital (read a few posts ago when he was in the Clev.Clinic) with breathing problems caused by the RSV virus. 

We've had some great success with the Prevacid during the day, but the evenings he still spits up a lot, so now we have him on a double dosage of it.  It seems to work (aside from yesterday and today, which have been pretty bad.) but the sleeping.  OH THE SLEEPING.  Or, should I say, lack of it.  He's up no less than 6 times, (and twice, 11 times!!) a night.  This is between midnight and 6AM when we wake up.  Sometimes it's just for his paci, sometimes he gets water, and at times we have no idea what in the hell he wants because he's inconsolable and won't stop crying.  It's so frustrating.  

He typically goes to bed really well.  He goes down awake, falls asleep on his own and sleeps for a few hours.  But once it hits midnight, (or around there) it's all over.  Last night, because we had guests staying with us, I slept in the basement sitting straight up while holding him.  We both got SOME sleep, but I really didn't sleep until Adam got the baby around 7:30 and he let me sleep  until almost 10:30.   He has also cried all day and evening, so I hope we're not back to square one.  Until then, we curse under our breaths and hope that Atlas ends up a happy kid.  

Show Me the Toys!

 Have I posted these yet?  Honestly, with Atlas' temperment, I don't know what day it is, what year, month, etc.  Anyhow, I don't remember typing about Christmas too much, so here goes.  Ares (right) got a new hat and coat from G.G.  It's super cute, but too cold to wear it just yet.  Once we're out of our single digit weather,  this will be super cute.

Ares and his Papa got matching shirts.  I'd made these a while ago, but since they're red, I had to wash them by themselves, and since Atlas had such severe reflux, I never had an empty washing machine to put these into.

Post Prevacid - I  have waay less laundry and was finally able to wash them to give them.  (I made the Flash logos for them.)

My children are loved by all.  Most of these gifts are from the grandma's, although many aunts and uncle's bought him things too.

Atlas got some good stuff his first Christmas too.  Tons of clothes, but some fun toys as well.  He's already played with the soccer ball, the car (when people hold him in there) and the Little People's Zoo Talker's toy.










Sometimes in all of the exhaustion I forget how good we really have it.  A few months of child care and formula (grrrr) making us tight, financially, but man, we have a great life.  

Clock Parts & Sainthood

This seriously took us 5 hours to put up.   Not easy, thanks to the vinyl  

I bought the clock parts for about $27.  It was cheap because I bought 6 of them, and found a free shipping coupon.    It came with the cheapest frames ever, (and by 'frames' I mean 12 thick cardboard pieces to tape the picture to!)   My mom is a rock-star though, and she bought me TONS of frames for Christmas.  15 of them, all identical for projects like this =)   Thanks Ma!   The pictures in the frames are 5x7, so overall, this is nearly 4 feet across. 

Hanging this was a pain in the butt.  For some reason, my analyst brain could not wrap around how to get the frames (4 horizontal, 8 vertical) to look like a circle when hanging up. Sequential analysis and distribution reports, no problem, square frames in a circle pattern - doh!  We started hanging the 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock frames 14" from the center of the clock.  (we measured from the part of the frame closest to the center - not from the center of the frame).     This would have been the right way to do it had the frames been square.    Also, when figuring out where you want the frame, don't forget to calculate how far down the frame the nail goes.  Once we  had placement, we had to measure 3/4" to 1 1/4" down, because even though every frame was identical, the hangie thingies were in different spots on the back.  Fortunately, my hubbie already had that calculated in when we started hanging. Good job babydoll! 

We then started with the 7 and 8 o'clock frames because we wouldn't have to stand on a ladder.  Once those were in place, the rest would just be measure and place, because it all needs to be symmetrical.   For the 7/8 o'clock frames, because they were vertical instead of horizontal, I could not figure out a calculation easily.  We ended up just eye-balling it.   This is where my husband was a saint.  I must have moved the place where I wanted the frames 20 times - and I would only move them a millimeter away.  At least we didn't put holes in the wall each time though! 

Then, for the other three quarters of the clock, everything was very simple to do.  If you look at the picture, I probably should have measured the 12 and 6 differently (farther away from the center) but I believe keeping them in (closer) keeps the clock's size a little bit smaller. It's very large to begin with, and by moving those two only an inch or two out, makes the whole thing look MUCH bigger.   

So, in all actuality, if you came to this website to learn an  easy way to figure out how far away to hang the frames, this one probably isn't the best.   (I'm fairly certain that last sentence didn't make much sense "learn an easy way to figure out" however, I don't care.  You get what I'm trying to say.)    Maybe look at the picture/graph below?  Just follow the colors and make sure everything lines up nicely!  Don't forget about the space between where the nail will go and the top of the frame! 

The wall is a bold mustard color, so I used B&W photos.  I think if I had put it on a more neutral colored wall (not in my house) I would have gone with colored photos, but since this is in a central location in the house, the B&W photos makes it look a lot less busy.  

THE VINYL:
I used my Silhouette Cameo and printed out the saying myself.  That part was simple once I figured out the right size and played around (for an hour) to figure out which font would look best.  I made the print (Spent with family) 17" long, total, and about 3" high. This part doesn't matter, I made it to my taste.   
I printed the vinyl, and put the transfer paper on top of it to pull up the words (I did the top section first.  This is to ensure the spacing stays the same throughout).   LIKE THIS: Skip to the 2 minute marker. 
 The hard part was that my transfer paper was MUCH stickier than the vinyl, so the vinyl didn't want to stay on the walls, it wanted to stay on the transfer paper.   That meant I had to go millimeter by millimeter of pulling transfer paper and pushing the vinyl on the wall with my finger - or a plastic tool.   The bottom part of the saying I used contact paper rather than transfer paper, which worked better, because it wasn't as sticky, but it was still a hassle.  I think next time I'll try the contact paper, but first rub it on the carpet so it gets a little fuzzy and then put the vinyl on it. I've got time to figure it out, but not much time, as my mom wants me to do one for her.    I'm really happy with how this turned out though.  Another Pinterest success!  haha!

After Christmas... Hospital Stay

Friday Ares, Davis, Devin and I drove to Great Wolfe Lodge for the night.   Darah and Adam met us up there a few hours later, because they each had to work that day.   I had planned on dropping Atlas off at Chrissy/Colt's house for the day, until my in-laws came up into town, but Atlas had a fever, so we ended up taking him to my mom's.  He gave her a hard time, and then my in-laws a hard time.

We had an awesome time at the water park.  It was nice to get away.  We came home to a sick little boy though.  He was up ALL NIGHT LONG crying.  Not crying - SCREAMING.  Poor kid.  I ended up calling the nurse's hotline (since it was Sunday) and they told me to take him to the Twinsburg ER.
 I did, and they told us we were going (by squad) to Hillcrest to be admitted.  I seriously thought we were going to Twinsburg to get a breathing treatment.  When we got to Hillcrest, I was told we'd be staying the night.   I am so grateful for my inlaws who stayed in town for an extra two nights to watch Ares. (Ares, by the way, was LOVING all the attention he got from his grandparents. I'm not sure he even realized Atlas was in the hospital, haha)

I expected to go home that next morning, because he was already feeling a little bit better, but apparently he needed oxygen still.  Same story, two more nights.  We were in the Hospital from Sunday (around noon) until Wednesday afternoon.  Adam stayed in the hospital for the first two nights, but on the third night, he took Ares to the New Year's Eve party while I was stuck with the roommates from hell.  Both parents were as sick as their little girl who was in the hospital for the same things Atlas was (RSV), both parents and the little girl kept coughing shit up, and hacking, blowing bloody noses and snoring SO FREAKING LOUD.  It.Was.Awful.  On the plus side, my mom worked that night, so I was able to celebrate New Years with her!  =)

silly husband

The food in the hospital was awful, the Gallo's were AWESOME and had this delivered to our room. 

Merry Christmas

Ares on our trip to Cinci.  

The Christmas Season started off with a trip to Cincinnati to celebrate with Adam's family.   Adam and I bought a beverage refrigerator for ourselves as our Christmas gift, and it was to be delivered the Friday we were to go to Cinci.   It came around 6:45, and after a 15 second inspection (it had dents ALL over it), after calling the company and taking many photos, we sent it back.   Extremely disappointing.  We had a late start to Cinci (left around 8) and no Christmas present.


It was a crazy visit.  We got to Cinci around midnight, and of course stayed up for about an hour or two (two for me) socializing.

The next day we got to see Braeden, Khirstin and Derrick  on their way to Corydon.  They stuck around for hours, and it was awesome seeing them.  It had been years, (probably 4), and then later Grandma and Jim came over too.  Around 6 wewe left for Evenlyn's birthday party.   The day was far from relaxing, but we really enjoyed ourselves and were grateful that we had so many family members around.   (I added photos of this on February 16, so go to that date for more pics.)

Ares' favorite gift

Our Christmas (Schmidt/Walter's family) was as crazy as it normally is.  We went to my Grandpa Walters on Christmas Eve morning (Adam had to work).  We don't typically go to this, however, 3 things:  1) My cousin Todd from NYC was bringing his new baby boy (exactly 2 months younger than Atlas), 2) My cousin Michael, who we have spoken to over the years but no one else in the family has was coming, and 3) It likely can be one of the last times we see my grandfather.  He's not doing so well.    My grandma Marion made the greatest breakfast I'd ever had in my life - no joke, it was amazing.  Totally amazing, and after a few hours I was stuffed and ready to get home.

After going home, (Adam got off of work early!!) we took naps, and then went to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with the Schmidt family.   Good food, great time, lots of laughs.  Oh, and since Adam was there the whole evening, it made my Christmas.  I was really bummed that he was supposed to work until at least 5, and miss part of the party.

This is an exceptionally moving moment.  Back when I was an early teen,
maybe 14 or 15, me and my cousins complained so much that we didn't
want grandpa to read The Night Before Christmas again, because he reads it
every year, and we wanted to open presents.  It REALLY hurt his feelings,
and he's refused to read it since.  BUT, he did read it this year for his great-
grand kids, and it meant A LOT to all of us.  

We opened our gifts from Santa at our house on Christmas morning.  Ares favorite toy was the remote controlled monster truck that was just like his daddy's.  Atlas' favorite is the suction cup toy.  Ares picked out the red car for Atlas, but I think right now Ares likes it better, although Atlas did play with it for a while.  The problem is that he doesn't sit up on his own yet, and the bumbo doesn't fit

Then we were off to Grandma and Papa's house to open (LOTS) more presents and later that evening the Walter's family came over to their house.

Daddy got an awesome gift from his parents and my parents combined, he got the GoPro Black edition.  It's pretty cool.  He's psyched about it.  I got that new camera (point and click, my specialty) that has wifi so I can upload it to my phone and then to the internet quickly.  I'm not sure how yet, but I will, eventually.  Plus pillows, frames, and a ton of other things.   Merry Christmas!!!