So at the end of last year I mentioned how I kept meaning to put up some 2013 recap posts, remember?
Well I hate to break it to you, but I just don’t have time. So sorry. Instead, I’m going to focus on actually trying to keep up on here better this year. I’m now much more settled into the swing of being home pretty much full-time with the 2 little Goonies, with my freelance editing/proofreading work in the mix, too.
That being said, here is the tiniest of tiny snapshots of what I had wanted to run down for you from last year. I did get good recap posts up from our trip out west in June, so let’s see what happened during the whole second half of 2013:
Our summer of music was fantastic. The best show we saw, BY FAR, was Paul McCartney. I was so pleasantly surprised by that, because for some reason I had really low expectations going into that concert. But he blew us away. I thought The Eagles would be the clear winner in our summer lineup, but not even close. I was totally disappointed by their show, which consisted mainly of ballads and songs I didn’t even know. Hmph.
So if you ever have the chance to see McCartney, DO IT! You will not regret it for a second.
I took the girls to Canada with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, and we had a blast, as always. It was the 2 youngest Goonies’ first trips to the island, and how could they not love it? I can’t wait to go back this year and watch them grow up to cherish the place as much as my sisters and I do.
Della turned 3, and Lana turned 1.
The holidays came and went, just like they do every year. We spent time with family, ate great food, drank good drinks, and had a lot of fun. 2013 ended a much better year than 2012 was, but I still think 2014 is going to be the best yet.
And there you have it. The rest of my 2013 in a shrunken nutshell.
Now I’m not promising daily or weekly posts anymore. In fact, I doubt those will happen very often ever again. But I do hope to get at least biweekly posts up here for you, just to kind of check in and keep you abreast mainly of these little girls’ adventures. Because they are way cuter than Ryan and I are.
However, the adults in the house do have something fun planned for this weekend. We’re heading down to Chicago for an outdoor beer fest with some friends. Yes, it’s outdoors and I am in the midst of despising this winter with all my might, but it should still be fun. They’ll have heaters, an indoor area in which to warm up, and plenty of beer on tap. Liquid warmth.
2 Friday Funks in a row?? Crazy. I must be on a roll over here. I’ll call this one the “No More Moo” edition, because I’ve been given the green light by Lana’s pediatrician to start weaning her from breast milk. Time to start shutting down the milk factory.
The reason for doing this is kind of a need mixed with a want. She NEEDS to start sleeping through the night again, and her doctor said weaning will absolutely help with that. I took her in the other night for her first sick check because she’s had this congestion and cough for months now, and I was afraid she might have an ear infection since she tugs on her left one all the time. Ears look perfect, the doctor said, but she said she still sounds a little croupy. Something in her upper respiratory system is definitely still bugging her, so she’s currently on a 5-day antibiotic just to try and kick whatever keeps running around in there.
But anyway, I was telling her how terrible Lana’s sleeping at night has gotten, and she was pretty surprised to hear that she almost always wakes up 2-3 times per night now. A complete sleep through is essentially nonexistent these days, which is really shitty for a 7 month old.
So after we discussed the decline in night sleeping and I asked about maybe stopping breastfeeding soon, her doctor said yes, let’s definitely start to wean her. That’s where the want part comes in.
I’m ready to be done nursing this time around. I don’t know if it’s the novelty wearing off earlier the second time around or maybe the fact that me having been home basically all of Lana’s life so far with her she’s just spent more time actually nursing than Della did since she was in daycare so much or what, but I’m pretty much over it. That “magical bond” between mother and nursing babe just isn’t that magical anymore.
As when Della was stopping breastfeeding, I would love to not have to worry about it over the summer. Taking my stupid hand pump to all-day events gets so old, and enduring the pain of engorgement when I’d rather just not have to think about it is getting annoying right now. Plus we need to get Lana to know that boobs are no longer an option in the middle of the night. That’s the worst part – as long as she continues to wake up inconsolable save for nursing, we’ll keep taking steps backward instead of forward in this process.
So enter Enfamil, the formula I’ve always dreaded due to its price tag. The act of giving my baby formula doesn’t bother me in the least; it’s paying for the crap when I know I can provide plenty of breast milk for free. But like I said, I’m willing to sacrifice the dollars for a few months this time to get my body freedom back. Selfish? Probably. But Mama needs her sanity too, thank you very much, and Lana will thrive just fine on formula for only a couple months. For when she turns 11 months, we’ll put her on whole milk anyway.
Day 1 of the weaning saga was yesterday, and it was an utter failure. The doctor said to begin by replacing the least important breast milk meals with formula until there is no more nursing, so we’re starting with the one she usually has between her now solid lunches and dinners. Yesterday I whipped up a 6 oz. bottle containing 4 oz. of breast milk and 2 oz. of formula, thinking that would be more than enough breast milk to mask whatever the foreign taste of formula is in there. Nope. She drank a couple good gulps, then refused the rest of it. Well shit. I even made a separate 1 oz. bottle of strictly formula, thinking maybe the breast milk was bad. Still refused. Double shit.
I was afraid of that. Della did the same thing when she stopped nursing, refusing formula. She was about a month and a half older than Lana is now, though, so I just pumped another month or 2 until she started whole milk. I’m not pumping for 4 more months this time, though, so we have to get this to work with Lana. Fortunately round 2 this afternoon went better. I made another 6 oz. bottle for her, but this time I used only 1 oz. of formula and 5 oz. of breast milk, and she drank the whole thing without hesitation. Much better.
My hope is that I can just keep upping the formula ratio in this afternoon bottle and her mid-morning one over the next week or so until those 2 are strictly formula. Then we’ll work on switching the morning wake-up feeding to formula, then lastly the bedtime feeding. The doctor said that’s the order of importance for the feedings to be breast milk. I may start transitioning the bedtime feeding to a mixed bottle sooner, though, so I can make it bigger. When she nurses I obviously have no idea how many ounces she’s taking, but her doctor said to give her a bigger bedtime bottle (at least 6 oz.) to help her stay satisfied through the night better. Makes sense to me. Let’s get this pony rolling.
I would love more than anything to have her nearly fully weaned in the next 3 weeks before we go to Colorado, but I won’t push it. I’ll try, but if I have to take the damn pump, I’ll take it. So wish us luck on this journey! Any and all easy weaning juju you can send our way will be much appreciated.
Speaking of Colorado, my sister had her baby today!!!! I could just poop I’m so excited for them. His name is Roan, and from what I’ve seen so far he is absolutely perfect. I simply cannot wait to hold this newest little Goonie nugget, and Della already knows she has a new baby cousin. She can even say Roan pretty well. I’m so happy we’ll get to meet him when he’s still so little. I just hope my sister and brother-in-law truly know what they’re signing up for when they invite us all to stay with them with a newborn in the house. Heh.
What else? Oh yeah – my race last weekend. Dudes, I kicked its ass!! I was hoping for under 27:00, secretly wishing for under 26:00, and I blew that thing out of the water. 25:11 was my time. BOOM to the OOM! 8:06 pace. I was floored. No way was I expecting a time like that, which is one of my fastest 5k times ever. Let alone after having 2 kids and just getting back to running a few weeks ago. It felt like a terrible run, too, because I started off way too fast trying to keep pace with a group of grade schoolers. Note – never EVER try to keep up with 7 year olds in a race. They’ll destroy you every time. So when I saw sub-25:00 on the score clock as I approached the finish line I was ecstatic.
Then it was off to Miller Park that afternoon with great friends for the Kenny Chesney concert. Yahoo!! That was an absolute blast. We skipped the first couple opening acts and went in for Eric Church and Kenny, and we had so much fun. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we had a wonderful afternoon and night.
I think that about wraps everything up for this week. Just another batch of random I wanted to write down before I forgot it all. We’re off to Madison on Sunday for my cousin’s wedding, which will be awesome. So you all have a great long weekend, thank you to those whom we remember in the name of this holiday, and I’ll talk to you later.
Haven’t seen one of these posts in a long time, eh? In fact, the last one was the one I wrote right after Lana was born; my 39 weeks pregnancy update.
But I wanted to get something posted since I haven’t for a while, yet all my thoughts are just kind of random right now. So let’s see… We’ll call this one the “Start of Summer Edition”.
Tomorrow is going to be a spectacular day. Bold prediction, no? But listen to the itinerary – in the morning I have Run the Bay, the 5k for which I’ve been training this past month or so. It’s the first one I’ve run in 2 years, the first and last time I did this same race. I’ve been pushing the girls in our new jogging stroller along the race route for my training runs, so hopefully when I do it alone tomorrow I’ll go faster. The other day I pushed them at a 9:07 pace, which made me pretty happy. If I can get in the lower 8 minutes range somewhere for my race pace that’d be awesome. I think my fastest race pace is just over an 8:00 mile, so I’ll consider anywhere close to that a success, 2 babies later.
Then tomorrow afternoon we’re going to the Kenny Chesney/Eric Church concert at Miller Park. Let the summer of music begin! It’s Kenny’s “No Shoes Nation” tour, and the next stop is Milwaukee. We’re going with friends, and this will be I think the 3rd Kenny show my girlfriend and I will have been to together. I can already hear the Coronas opening and the limes being squeezed…
What else? Oh, Lana has officially sprouted her first tooth. Excellent. Just what we need – something else to make her scream. However, she did sleep completely through the night last night for the first time in at least a month, so I’ll take that. If teeth = sleep for her, I’ll even spring for some dentures to fill her mouth.
Look who my bed partners are this morning – how could it not start well? Sorry the quality is so terrible. It was taken on my phone, which has a ridiculously bright flash, so I kept capturing their recoils instead of their cute little faces, but oh well. You can still tell who it is. Lana has switched positions, though, and is currently trying to squirm her way over to eat the computer. Attention diverting is in full effect right now.
Della has started swim lessons at the gym, so we’re off to those later this morning. This will be her 3rd out of 7 sessions, and she said today she wants to jump in with the teacher and put her head all the way under the water. So far she’s been very hesitant to do so, but the other little girl in her class is a whirling dervish in the pool, which I think has prodded D on a little. I hope she does dunk under today, because I just want her totally comfortable with being in and around the water before we’re near any lakes this summer.
Oh yeah – there’s going to be a baby any day now too! No, not in this household, but in my sister’s. She and my brother-in-law are expecting their first, a little boy, sometime in the next week or so. She’s due next Saturday, but I have the feeling of tomorrow in my head. We shall see – I can’t wait to hear the news!
I think those were the main things running around upstairs this morning. Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll let you know how the race goes. Fingers crossed for a respectable finish!
I am beyond thrilled that the weather is finally starting to turn. Huge emphasis on the finally. I swear this winter seemed to never end, no matter what date the calendar read. Having a newborn during those miserable winter months wasn’t the most fun either, but that’s not the point of this post…
This summer is going to be so much fun. Ryan’s place of employment allows them the full calendar year after a baby is born to take parental leave, so he has saved his and will be taking a good portion of June and July off. We get a summer vacation as a family this year! I can’t wait. First up will be a nice long road trip out to Colorado to visit my sisters and meet our brand new nephew, who should be making his appearance sometime in the next couple weeks!! (Marissa, if you’re reading, did you just poop your pants at that thought? 😉 )
But I think I will coin this the summer of music. We have more concerts lined up so far than I think we’ve had in any other season. Check this out:
Kenny Chesney & Eric Church at Miller Park in May
Tedeschi Trucks Band at Red Rocks in June
Violent Femmes & The Avett Brothers at Summerfest in June
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Summerfest in June
Rush at Summerfest in July
The Eagles at Summerfest in July
Paul McCartney at Miller Park in July
Come on! That is one hell of a lineup! This is going to be awesome.
And on a completely different note, I bought a new face lotion that I am loving. Despite containing a broad spectrum SPF 30, it’s super light and not greasy at all. This is something I definitely appreciate with oily skin. I just started using it so I’m not sure how truly effective its claim to reduce dark spots is (i really hope that works, though), but everything else about it is great. It smells really good too, which is a major criterion for me with any product ever since my sense of smell went haywire when I was pregnant with Della.
That’s about it for today; just some random thoughts for you all. Get out and enjoy the day – it’s supposed to be in the 80s here! The girls and I are going to the park for the first time in months, and D is so excited. I just ordered a double jogging stroller that is supposed to arrive today, and I can’t wait to test it out.
Saturday was our annual trip to the Jimmy Buffett concert at Alpine Valley, and I’m pretty sure this was my 9th show. We’ll have to do something fun for my 10th anniversary next year. A signature cocktail maybe?
This was the 2nd time I’ve gone while 7+ months pregnant, and I will admit, it wasn’t quite as fun this time around as it was when I was pregnant with D for some reason. Maybe it was the 5k I walked the night before that wiped me out. I don’t know, but I was just so tired the whole time, it made for a very long 12 hour day.
It’s always great to see our friends with whom we go with each year, though. They bring a whole spread of food, Ryan makes his famous gumbo, we set up our tent, crank up the tunes, and watch the crazy. The row in which we parked this year was pretty tame, though, so there wasn’t a whole lot of good people-watching from my chair, and since it was 90 degrees again I was definitely not up for doing the whole parking lot walkabout this time.
But overall it was a really good day. I saw a guy with whom I swam at Madison and his wife, and they’re wonderful people, so it was fun to catch up with them. R’s ego was permanently boosted when 8 Louisiana natives said his gumbo was the best they’ve ever had, and I don’t think they were just blowing smoke up his ass either – it was delicious, as always. He definitely had his fair share of the cocktails, though, and was walking on a slant by the time we headed back to the car. Mind you, Alpine Valley’s parking lots are completely flat. 😉
And of course the music was as awesome as ever. It’s hard to believe Jimmy’s 65, the way he still rocks it on stage. They did just play 1 big long 2.5 hour set this time, though, instead of their usual 2 set show with an intermission. Maybe they’re getting ready for the end? My favorite part was when they all sat down for their acoustic-ish segment, during which they played “Southern Cross”, one of my all-time favorite songs.
Then, somehow, our exit from the usually chaotic, jam-packed parking lots was the fastest ever. The friend to whom we had given a ride was already back at our car when R and I arrived, we were able to pull right out of our row, and we were home a solid 2 hours earlier than normal. We typically stay and fire up the grill again afterwards to wait out the traffic, but this year we were just elated to be out of there so early and easily.
So here’s a little peek into the day. We didn’t end up taking many pictures at all this year, but we did manage to get a couple good group shots as various people showed up. And here’s to not being pregnant for the next show!
no tailgating and no alcoholic beverages? oh yeah right. then why did we get there 8 hours before show time, ha!
another of r’s annual treats – teriyaki shrimp skewers. yum!
boys stirring gumbo
group shot #1
group shot #2
yes, the 31 week pregnant girl had had enough. and this was before we even went into the show, haha!
Ryan and I went to the Zac Brown Band concert at Summerfest last Thursday night, and it was incredible! Our seats ended up being beyond excellent, aside from the fact that they were standing-room only.
At least we didn’t have to worry about anyone yelling at us to sit down this time. Ahem. (i’m not still bitter about those stupid wrigley people or anything…)
The show started at 7:30 with 2 opening acts, so we figured getting in there around 8:30 would be good. Not really. ZBB didn’t end up coming on until after 9:30, by which point the temperature had risen about 15 degrees as people packed into the standing room area and my legs felt like they were about to explode.
Maybe people who say to wear compression stockings during pregnancy aren’t so crazy after all. But not on a 100+ degree day, thanks.
Anyway… Once they started playing they didn’t stop for about 2 hours, so we definitely got our money’s worth. Plus the area in which we stood was directly in front of the stage, and had we gotten there even earlier to get right up against the stage, we easily could’ve touched the band members as they came by. But I wasn’t about to battle drunk, sweaty, stinky crowds of youngin’s for that opportunity. Me and my pregnant self were perfectly happy a few rows back.
I think there were only about 2 songs of theirs I love that they didn’t play, so I was very happy with the performance. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking, but this makes 2 shows of theirs we’ve seen now and both have been beyond great.
Pregnant lady needed to stay hydrated…
He was deadly with that t-shirt cannon!
My favorite part was when they all came out to the front of the stage, sat down, and played Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. It was SO good!
The violin intro to “Free” gives me chills every time…
Ryan loved this guy because he was wearing a Packers shirt. He was crazy! (the band member, not ryan)
Ryan and I went to see Roger Waters perform “The Wall” at Wrigley Field Friday night, and it was pretty amazing. The stage was enormous, and the wall they constructed covered the entire outfield, from foul pole to foul pole. It was over 3 stories high, and it served as a giant projection screen for much of the show, too.
The wall was seriously incredible.
If you’ve ever seen this production, or even just know the songs from this Pink Floyd double-album, you know “The Wall” is rife with anti-government, anti-politics, anti-establishment overtones. So there were plenty of hammers, a giant fascist pig floating around the stadium at one point, a video tribute to fallen soldiers from all eras projected on the massive wall, a model bomber plane that crashed into the wall in flames, an opening montage of fireworks, and a general f*** the man sentiment throughout the concert.
Doubling as a jumbotron for those not on the field.They built up the wall during the 1st act - almost complete here.Hammers and machine guns - pretty typical for this show.Bring 'em home!
Ryan is a HUGE Pink Floyd fan, and although I’m not nearly as big a fan as he is, I do know most of the songs from the album. In particular though, my favorites from this show were Waters’ duet with himself from a 1980 show singing “Mother”, “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” (the one with, “hey, teacher! leave those kids alone!”), and “Comfortably Numb”. You know, all the songs non-Pink Floyd fans know.
I must admit, the huge tribute to all the fallen soldiers was extremely moving, especially since they projected a number of civilians too. It began with his father, who was a British Army pilot shot down in World War II and included a ton of children from today’s conflicts. It literally brought me to tears.
The fallen projected on the completed wall at intermission.
The show ended with the wall coming down amid chants of “Tear down the wall!” as the giant floating pig covered in fascist slogans that I mentioned above was grabbed by the crowd and ripped to shreds. It was a pretty amazing spectacle.
"Tear down the wall!" The show ended with the full band on stage in front of the destroyed wall.
Unfortunately, the awesomeness was marred by one huge lowlight. Our seats were excellent – front row directly behind the Cubs dugout, first 2 seats on the aisle, almost dead center of the stage. Basically as close as you could get to being on the field without paying the extra $100+. But apparently the entire rest of our section had dubbed these as “no standing” seats.
I'm not kidding, our seats were phenomenal.
Now, riddle me this – when have you ever gone to a concert, let alone in an outdoor venue and seeing PINK FLOYD, and not stood at any point in the show? Yeah, me neither. NEVER.
Someone in at least each of the handful of rows behind us at some point yelled at Ryan to sit down. And to his credit, he kept his cool pretty well for almost the entire show. He was extremely accommodating, trying to either sit on the back of his chair so as not to be up so high, seeing if standing in the aisle instead would work (it didn’t), or simply just sitting back down after a minute.
He was even proactive, knowing this was going to get ugly if they didn’t shut up, and asked the usher 1) if we were, in fact, allowed to stand in those seats (of course we were!), and 2) if we could be moved because of all the complaining. The usher was very understanding, told us that we could definitely stand in our seats, came down and even told the people behind us so (too bad that didn’t shut them up), but was unfortunately unable to move us at intermission.
The worst offenders were this group of 3 women directly behind us. They obviously were neither Roger Waters nor Pink Floyd fans, and had to look the band up on Google on their phones at intermission. Huh?? Why are you sitting in such great seats then? At one point, the chick in the middle reached around and shined the camera flash on her phone right in Ryan’s face. WHO DOES THAT??
Finally with about 10 minutes left in the show we simply left our seats. We moved over about 2 sections, where EVERYONE was standing, and watched the remainder from there, in seats not nearly as good as the ones FOR WHICH WE PAID. As we were walking up the aisle to move, the crowd of course thought we were being kicked out and shouted at us to “enjoy the rest of the show you asshole”, and one guy from a few rows back even threw his beer at Ryan. WHAT?!?!?
Sorry for all the caps, but my god, people. How about some maturity? You are grown-ass men! And yes, I know Ryan was finally shouting back at the end, but come on. I can’t disagree with him at all – we were in no way in the wrong, we had to stand to see the stage over the crowd of people on the field, and we weren’t even standing the whole time, only during the climactic songs when Waters urged the crowd to get into it himself.
You know I hate confrontation, so my route was to simply ignore the heckling, and it seemed to work. No one said anything to me directly. Granted, I never once turned around to look at who the heckler was or said one word back to anybody, and I did try to keep Ryan from doing so. But finally he’d had enough and I couldn’t do anything about it. I saw neither the phone flash nor beer being thrown since I was trying to be as oblivious as possible and simply watch the show, and maybe it’s better that I missed those antics. I think I would’ve flipped out on those douchebags if I had witnessed such childish, ridiculous behavior. As the only 100% sober person there, I can say without bias that everyone was just being stupid.
We did get to see the end of the show from the other seats and didn’t have to miss anything, but still. Talk about a horrible way to end an otherwise spectacular concert. I felt particularly bad for Ryan since I knew how much he was looking forward to this and Pink Floyd is his all-time favorite band, but fortunately he said it didn’t ruin his entire weekend, just that little piece of the show. Overall he was still definitely glad we went. Good.
So sorry Wrigley fans, but your concertgoers are some of the worst, most obnoxious people I’ve ever been around. This experience has definitely soured me on ever going back there. At least the rest of the weekend was fantastic – we spent the remainder at my mom and stepdad’s house, enjoyed some delicious smoked pork from the inaugural run of their new smoker/grill, soaked up as much sun as we could stand before it got too hot, and watched Della run around playing with everything in sight.
Della LOVED her Cookie Monster ice cream from the Plush Horse! And her new Elmo flip-flops.
Summer is here, my friends. And I say bring it on! Just not at Wrigley!
