Viva Las Vegas

If you happen to be looking for me between Sunday and Thursday, this is where you can find me.......

Nick and I have planned a trip to Las Vegas.  Every couple of months he gets an itch to go somewhere, and obviously when I was pregnant we really couldn't venture out too far.  Probably not even a month after Teagan was born he was asking when I would be ready to leave the kids and go on another vacation and how long I planned on breastfeeding because he knows I am not a fan of lugging around the breast pump on vacation.  So to get him off my back I told him we could go to Las Vegas sometime in the summer.  His wheels were spinning and he immediately started looking at airfare and hotels.  What can I say, the man loves to travel.  

And as some of you might already know, this is our little souvenir from our trip to Las Vegas last summer......(that won't happen again this year)

Just like the shirt says, she is what happened in Vegas

 I am a big fan of The Flamingo because of location and it isn't so huge that it takes you forever to get to your hotel room.  But this time we are staying somewhere new.  We are going to give The Mirage a try.  They were running some sort of special on their tower suite rooms.  So we will be living it up like high rollers, and by no means do we gamble like high rollers.  But I am excited to see what The Mirage has to offer.  
Here is what our room might look like......

 And while I am sitting poolside with a mojito in my hand or gambling my husband's hard earned money away at the roulette table, I will definitely be missing my two little sweethearts......

But I know they will both be in very good hands with Grandma Boo and Grandma Marieda.  I will admit that I am looking forward to sleeping without a baby monitor right next to me, but I will be more than excited to get home and squeeze both my babies.  But for now, I better get back to doing the laundry and packing for the kids and I.  

So We Need A Little Speech Therapy

My adorable, fun-loving, sweet and energetic little Jack needs a little jump start in his speech skills, so that is exactly what we are going to do.  I started really paying attention to Jack's speech while I was home with him during my maternity leave.  Yes, he talks ALL the time, and yes he can identify and name everything in our entire house and when we are out and about, but he seemed to struggle with carrying out a conversation once he had someone's attention.  And I also noticed that he didn't use complete sentences/phrases when he was asking for something or attempting to ask a question. He has excellent rote skills.  He knows all of the shapes, most of the colors, can say the alphabet, counts to 15 consistently, and sometimes up to 20, and definitely knows how to use his charm and adorable looks to win people over. 

  In the middle of June I really wasn't seeing the progress that I was hoping I would see with Jack's speech skills, so I talked to my aunt Carol who is a Speech Therapist, and asked her who I call to get him evaluated.  I called and met with the coordinator, and on July 11th he was evaluated.  The evaluation went well and Jack was cooperative. They came right to our house, which I'm sure helped Jack to feel more comfortable.  I felt very good about everything because they saw the same areas of concern that I saw. Now we are just waiting for all of the paper work to go through the state and then Jack will start his speech therapy one time a week at IVCH. 

 The downside is that he can only receive it through Early Intervention until he turns 3, which is September 24th.  Then he will have to get evaluated by the school and then we will have to see what they feel is necessary and if he will be able to enter preschool after his birthday or if we should just continue with just the speech therapy. Since Ladd does not have a preschool program, they send their students to Spring Valley.  This might sound bad, but I'm not letting Jack go to Spring Valley because they have a very highly Spanish speaking and low income population in the school and I don't need my kid to speak Spanish, I need him to speak English!!! So I am keeping my fingers crossed that if he does get recommended to attend preschool that Oglesby will let him attend their preschool program.  It is very nice that they have some sort of tuition waiver program set up for their employees so that all employees can bring their kids to that school if they choose to do so.  So we will just have to see what happens.  

Nick and I have been doing things at home with Jack for the past month and he is already showing signs of improvement.  He has improved on asking questions and initiating or engaging one of us when he wants something, rather than just saying the one word name of the item or thing he wants.  And this morning Jack went to Linda's for the first time in 2 weeks and she said that she could see an improvement in his talking, so that totally made my day.  I feel that he is improving, but it is hard for me to judge because I am with him everyday.  It has taken A LOT of patience and quite an effort to make sure that we are consistent with making Jack use his new skills, even when it would just be easier to give in.  

So definitely a little bit of tough love is being used in our household.  And to top it all off, Nick was working out of town for the past month and he was only home on the weekends.  So it was a rather stressful time for me at home because there was no one there to relieve me or help lighten the load at the end of the day.  And I will admit I was a nervous wreck for the weeks leading up to the evaluation. And friends and family kept telling me, "Don't worry, he is fine, you have nothing to worry about, " but when it is your kid, that is pretty much impossible to do.  But after seeing the progress Jack has made, I definitely feel that we are doing the right thing.  And whenever I start worrying or stressing about it, I just think of some other people out there and the problems they have with their kids, and I thank my lucky stars that this is the biggest problem that we have right now.  So for now, I am just happy that we took the initiative and we are going to give Jack that little jump start that he needs.  Wish us Luck :-)
 

My First 5K

I have always tried to become a runner, but for some reason it just never worked out for me.  I love taking the kids for walks, I enjoy doing pilates and I like to stay active, but for some reason running and me never saw eye to eye.  

And then at the beginning of May, my aunt Carol informed me about the iphone app Couch to 5K.  I figured since I was taking the kids for a walk everyday, I might as well kick it up a notch and start running instead of walking. I gave it a try and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it.  It is a 9 week workout program that gradually increases your running time until you are running 30 solid minutes.  Since I did it more than 3 days a week I finished the workouts in about 5 weeks.  And keep in mind I was pushing both kids in the double stroller during all of the workouts, so probably an extra 60 pounds. My cousin Lesley was also doing the workouts, so it was fun to hear about her progress and share stories of how much we were enjoying running.  Then we heard about a 5K that was going to take place at Oak Ridge Golf Course and I thought maybe we would give it a try.  Now we were both a little nervous because obviously we know every little in and out to the golf course and we know how brutal some of those hills can be, but you will never know if you can do something if you don't attempt it.  

The race took place on June 9th at 6:00pm, and of course it was brutally hot that day.  Oh and I forgot to mention that this was only a couple of days after I quit breastfeeding, so I was rather engorged, just to paint an accurate picture of how uncomfortable I was.  I decided to take my running partner Teagan with me, but I didn't think I would be able to do it pushing both kids.  The first mile was rather easy, and it was on the back side of the course where all of the huge hills were.  Lesley and I stayed together and we were making really good time.  The second mile seemed to be the hardest, and then by the last mile you just want to finish!!! We did have to walk some parts, but our main goal was just to finish, and that we did.  I was rather impressed by our success, considering that we both just started running 4 weeks before that.  I didn't even care what my time was, when I crossed that finish line I had a huge smile from ear to ear on my face because I knew that I had worked hard and I had accomplished a goal that I had set for myself, and that was a great feeling. 

I hope that I am able to continue running and maybe even run in some other races.  But I will have to find a new partner in crime because Lesley and her husband are expecting baby #3 in February, isn't that exciting. 

Lake of the Ozarks

After we enjoyed the Fourth of July festivities in St. Louis, we were headed down to Lake of the Ozarks to spend some time with the family.  It was nice that we did spend some time in St. Louis because it really broke up the drive.  But once again the kids were very good in the car for the 3 hour car ride.  

Once again this year, it was extremely HOT while we were there.  It was too hot to even take the boat out, but we did manage to take Jack for a quick ride the last day we were there bc it cooled down a little, and by a little I mean that it was only 94 degrees compared to 104!!!  I just couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be for the kids in the boat with their hot life jackets on in that extreme heat.  So we spent a lot of time swimming off the dock at my in-laws house.  They even had a blow up pool set up for the kids in the shade on the dock.  The pool was a big hit with the kids.  

Teagan spent most of her time in the house, and I think she was perfectly fine with that.  She did take some really good naps while we were down there, so it gave us time to swim with Jack in the lake while listening for her on the monitor.  But Teagan did enjoy her first venture to the Outlet Mall.  So far she is a pretty good little shopper.  

Teagan trying to eat her new friend

 And in between shopping and swimming, we did get to spend some quality family time in the comfortable air conditioning inside the house.  Jack was more than entertained by our nephews.  They are really good with him and he absolutely adores them.  

Out of all the toys he could play with, Jack wanted to play with Teagan's car seat toy

Morning coffee on the porch with Mommy

Grandma and Grandpa with all the kids

 Once again we had a lot of fun at the lake with our family.  But it was nice to get home and have everyone sleep in their own beds.  The four of us shared a bedroom, and even though we had a king sized bed, Jack always seemed to kick and turn and lay right next to one of us all night long.  

It's hard to believe that last year when we were at the lake we told everyone we were pregnant, now this year we have our precious little Teagan with us and next year she will be running around with everyone else.  What a difference a year can make.

Fourth of July Festivities

To kick off the Fourth of July, Nick and I decided to pack up the kids and head down to St. Louis for the day and night.  We were on the road by 9:00am, and both kids were absolutely wonderful in the car.  Teagan pretty much slept the entire time, but Jack was way too excited and kept looking out the windows and trying to figure out where we were going.  By the time we arrived at the hotel, the kids were both ready to stretch out and relax after being stuck in those car seats for the three hour ride. 

The kids kicking back and relaxing in the hotel room......

A little sibling love

Doesn't Teagan look excited....lol

Even though they have completely different coloring, I thought they resembled each other in this picture

 Our original plans were to go to the air show that they have at the Arch, walk around by the Laclede's Landing, grab a little dinner and end the day by enjoying the fireworks.  Due to the extremely hot temperatures in St. Louis on the 4th, we were not able to stay as long as we would have liked at the air show. The first mistake we made was letting Jack out of the stroller because we though he would be cooler if he wasn't strapped in.  But the problem with that was that he didn't want to hold our hands and he just wanted to run around.  And even though Teagan was completely covered in the stroller, you could tell she was getting really hot.  So after about 30 minutes of beating the heat, we decided to head back to the hotel so all of us could just cool down.   

Teagan is definitely in her relaxation mode

Making a few important phone calls

Teagan and Mommy cooling down in the room

After hanging out in the room four a couple hours, it was finally time to head to the Arch and watch the fireworks display.  I was very impressed.  The show was set to music and it was very neat to see.  I was also happy that Jack actually enjoyed the fireworks this year, so it was way more enjoyable than last year.  Teagan was also intrigued by the display of colors, but you could definitely tell that she was pretty ready to go to sleep.  As soon as the fireworks were finished, we went back to our room and the kids quickly fell asleep.  

The next morning we left St. Louis and headed south to Lake of the Ozarks to stay at my in-laws house.  I will post about that very soon. 

Bye Bye Breastfeeding

As I have said from the beginning, Teagan was a wonderful nurser.  She was very efficient and easy going when it came to eating.  I originally wanted to have her weened before school started in August.  Then Nick and I decided to plan a trip to Las Vegas at the end of July, so I bumped up the end date a little bit.  

In early June, I was chit chatting with my mom on the phone while I was nursing Teagan and I was telling her about my plan to ween her by the end of July.  I swear Teagan must have understood the conversation that was taking place because literally the next day she was doing a little bit of refusing when it came to nursing.  This went on for about a week.  So I started to slow down with pumping and would try to nurse her about every other feeding and giving her formula in between to try and slowly transition her.  It was a bit uncomfortable because I did go through some engorgement between the feedings, but my milk supply was very slowly starting to slow down a little.  Then when I finally accepted the fact that we were probably going to be done breastfeeding sooner than I had originally anticipated, Teagan decided that she was all about it once again.  Obviously our little girl wants to call the shots.  But after going through all of the work of slowing my milk supply down and mentally accepting that we were almost finished, I decided that we would continue down our path of weening. 

 Another reason that I decided to quit was because we are at the pool and on the go a ton during the summer.  I thought it would be easier to just bring along some formula and bottles to the pool rather than worry about where I am going to nurse and how am I going to cover up and all of that good stuff.  So by the second week in June breastfeeding came to an end.  Teagan has done really well with taking the formula and luckily I had enough milk pumped and frozen that she is still getting one feeding of breast milk a day.  

And on another note, Teagan was on Enfamil Gentlease.  One day at Target I noticed that the Target brand was WAAAAYYYY cheaper and pretty much double the amount.  So I thought we would give it a try.  After about a week, I noticed that Teagan was rather fussy when it came to eating and she wasn't finishing her bottles, and then we had a little episode of constipation.  Then it finally dawned on me that it must be the new formula.  Even though the ingredients were all the same, for some reason it was upsetting Teagan.  So now we are back to buying the full priced brand name formula.  Not only does our little girl want to call the shots, but she also isn't going to settle for anything less than brand name items.....lucky me.