My Little Puker

Before I get into Alexa's puking story...guess what?  My little blog has had 3,000 views as of, well, 2 minutes ago!  I know that's not a whole lot, but to me, it's exciting.  Especially since I have an embarrassing few number of followers.  So, if you want to follow me by email you can do so right over <------- there.  And, you know, tell your friends and leave a comment or two so that I can eventually quit my night job and become a professional blogger.  I was going to say day job but being that I work night shift, it wasn't too appropriate.  Also I foresee problems in the potential of quitting my night job to blog seeing that I do all my blogging from work.  But that's besides the point.

About 2 months ago Alexa got sick.  Like, high fever, sitting miserably on the couch all day, nasty sick.  Which, if you know anything about Alexa, that is not like her (the 'sitting on the couch - or anywhere - for an extended period of time' part).  A couple of times during that illness she threw up when she had a super high fever.  She got over it, no big deal, I thought the throwing up was a one time kind of thing.  Especially since she had been sick a lot in the previous 6 months (stupid day care) and hadn't had a problem vomiting.  Oh, did I mention that she only puked on me?  Yeah, that's important, remember that. 

So fast forward to last Friday night.  Alexa had been not herself all day Friday (low grade fever, runny nose) and a little after midnight she woke up crying.  I got up and went into her room expecting her to be hot, which she was.  We were quietly doing our thing...I changed her diaper, took her temperature, I was holding her in the bathroom getting out the Tylenol when I felt a heave and then felt something warm on my shoulder.  Of course she had puked.  On me.  Again.  She kept going a little bit so I hung her over the sink.  When she was done I took off her shirt and then took off my shirt (the first thing she did after puking was to try to put her head on my shoulder right where the puke was so that thing had to go quick) and tried to wash off Bunny (no! not Bunny!!!).  Just as I had Bunny in the sink, Nick came walking in to see what was going on.  He opened the bathroom door to find Alexa sitting on the counter and me standing in front of her, both of us topless.  I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure he smirked when he said "shirts?"  I'm also going to assume that he was too worried about Alexa to bring me a shirt also because he definitely just came back with one for her. 

We ended up sleeping in our sick bed (Alexa and I, that is) aka the guest room that has a full size bed in it which is pushed up in a corner so that Hot Stuff can't climb/crawl/roll/fall out.  And let me tell you, she tries.  That child is all over the place!  I swear that growing up sharing a bed with Katie was God's way of preparing me to sleep with Alexa.  She wants to fall asleep right next to you which is nice except that when you try to move over (even if she's totally knocked out) she will wake up just enough to scootch up against you again.  Most nights that we sleep in there I end up hugging the side of the bed while Dynamite Jr. is sprawled across my pillow, me and anywhere else she can get her little body.  It's amazing how much room a 31 inch (rounding up) child can take up!  Plus, this time I was trying to keep the covers off her (because of the fever) and on me (still no shirt) so that was a mission in itself.  My mom says that I shouldn't make a habit out of sleeping with her in there but we only do it when she's sick and we like it.  I know it's going to turn around and bite me in the ass in the end, but right now I really don't care.  So anyway, she woke up the next day (at 6:00) feeling just fine and has been fine ever since then so who knows what that was all about. 

What I want to know is why does she always have to puke on me?  She doesn't vomit anywhere else.  Not in her crib, not on Nick, no where but on me.  Does she sense that it doesn't bother me that much (Nursing can make you immune to many things.  But given the choice, I will always choose emesis-free!)?  Or does she just feel comfortable enough with me to think 'oh, Mommy is here, it's OK to let the chunks fly?!'  All I know is that from now on, when Alexa has a fever, I will be wearing some sort of water-proof smock.  They have those, right?

This post brings new meaning to the phrase 'Crazy long post of pictures' (consider yourselves warned)

We went down south for Easter last weekend, which also happened to be the weekend before Nick's birthday.  So, obviously we had to have a party (because what good is a trip home without a Nettina party?).  

 Easter Bunny Alexa helping to put candy in bowls.

 'I have my baskets, where should we go shopping?!'

Yes, those are glass.

 Lexi and my mom

 She loves to dip.

 Alexa and Nikki.

Again, yes, that is a roll of tape that she's playing with.  No worries, I took it away from her before she could cut herself.

 awwwwww...look at the little cousins playing!

 They are so cute!

 Happy Birthday to Nick!!!  This was about two seconds before Alexa dipped her

finger in the icing and had a little taste.

 OK, so apparently this is one of those paper lantern things where you make a wish or something like that (I don't know, I was giving Alexa a bath when they took it out).  But, regardless, look at how big it is!

 Everyone on the patio watching the lantern go up.

 How can you send up a lantern while on a screened in patio, you ask? 

Oh, that would be through the large hole that is ripped into the screen.

 Want to see something just as ghetto as the gianormo screen hole, 10x as creepy and 100x as awesome?!  We (we being my mom) found a website where you can put people's faces into movie posters.  So she put

Nick's face (plus some with other people) in all these different movies, had them printed on 8x10s at Costco and then we taped them to the front of all the picture frames in our house.  Yup, scotch taped them.  Like I said, ghetto, creepy and awesome all at the same time. 

That was Saturday, now on to Easter Sunday.  We went to church in the morning.  Alexa was pretty good, she made it about half way through until Nick had to take her outside to walk around.

 I know that this isn't the best picture, but it's the only one where I don't have a triple chin.  Since this is my blog, I get to choose the pictures, and I choose the one where I don't look like a fat ass.  :)

 I don't know what she's doing in this picture but, I'm not gonna lie, she's pretty cute.  Why are you all standing in front of a slide, you ask?  Well, that's because Crazy McCrazeCraze threw a small fit and insisted on being by the slide.  In an attempt to get a decent picture, we went with it.

 Looking for Easter eggs (by outlet boxes).

 Yummy, Easter bread!  And...it's off to Easter with the Nettinas:

 Alexa got an Easter present from Aunt Kathy (and a bunny from Aunt Bunny...appropriately)

 Nettina cousins (plus some red-headed husbands)

 Playing with Aunt TeTe (aka Aunt Bunny)

Katie and Michael decided to talk to Grammy to avoid cleaning up...slackers.

 Yeah, I'm related to them.

 I love this picture just for Alexa's face toward Anthony. 

She seems to be very concerned about those cupcakes.

Both Nick and Abe's (Jennie's husband) birthday was on Monday so Aunt Kathy made them a peeps cake and we sang to them.  Apparently, they gave Grammy 1/4 of the cake as her piece and she went with it.  :)  Please notice the bib, it's awesome.

The 31 Party

I know that you are just dying to know how the little party thing went on Thursday.  Well lets just say that it lived up to, and possibly surpassed my expectations.  Let me tell you what happened.  OK, so Alexa and I drove up to the house at 6 which is when it was supposed to start.  There were a bunch of cars in the driveway so that, along with triple checking the house number, reconfirmed that I was, in fact, at the correct location.  (can you see where this is going...I mean, in regards to my craziness?)  I sat in the car for a few minutes deciding how to get into the house because this place (kind of like my house) has a front door, a side door where the garage and driveway are and a back door onto a porch.  What the hell?!  Who knows the appropriate door to knock on?  If you go in through the front door you might be weird or too formal, plus there were no pavers or anything leading up to it which leads me to believe that it is not to be used.  The side door is kind of strange because it goes through a garage which is usually how the family gets in but guests are different.  And going in through the back/porch door is kind of awkward too, what do you just walk into the house and say hi?  It took me like, 3 minutes to contemplate all of this.  After having a small chuckle to myself about a sign I've seen before that says 'back door friends are best' (raise your hand if you know what sign I'm talking about...that's right Katie!) and then making a mental note to jump 'get pavers to lead up to the front door' to the top of the list of things to do around the house, I saw someone walk onto the porch.  Awesome, here's my opportunity.  I get Alexa out of the car and walk onto the porch, introduce myself and then follow the lady (who ended up being someone who lived in the neighborhood but not the homeowner) into the house. 

I tried to say hi and to have a small conversation with people but really, what is there to talk about?  I don't know you and anyone who knows me knows that I literally can not talk to you if I don't know you.  Seriously.  It took me months to talk to people at work...months!  There are some people who I've known for years, you know, those people you see once every six months or so and you see them for a total of 3 hours at some one's party or something?  Anyway, I still don't feel comfortable talking to even those people, how am I supposed to have a conversation with these strangers?  Everyone else was already deep in their own conversations anyway, so Alexa and I walked around a little bit, she played in another room with the little girl who lives there while I awkwardly stood against a wall (not kidding), and we went outside so that she could go on the swing in their backyard. 

Finally, it was time for the 'buy these super cool purses' part of the party to start.  Which, of course, perfectly coincided with Alexa's usual bedtime.  Wonderful.  She ran around the room, I tried to chase her and stop her from doing crazy things like use a wooden duck as a stepping stool to climb onto a trunk (OK, so she wasn't really that bad but she did do the duck thing.  Hopefully she's still young enough to where other people think she's cute and not super annoying...hopefully.)  Regardless, trying to pick out an appropriate order (you know, I don't want to seem too cheap yet I also don't want to spend $100 that I don't have just because I got invited to this party) while chasing around an 18 month old is not my idea of fun.  I finally figured it out and we paid and left.  I said good-bye to the room and no one acknowledged me and then I said good bye to the hostess and thanked her and we drove home.  They probably all talked about me and what a bitch I am when I left, it's like high school all over again.  I had to go home and change my clothes due to the constant heart palpitations, pukey (Is that even a word?  Spellcheck says it's not but I disagree.) feeling and sweating that was going on over the previous two and a half hours.  Thank you self diagnosed social anxiety for once again reminding me why I only have a hand full of friends!  :)  (Apparently with a little paranoia thrown in there.  Have I ever told you that I used to diagnose my friends and family with my pocket DSM-IV in nursing school?  Everyone has a little crazy in them, some just more than others, but that's a whole other blog post!)  I had the purses delivered to the lady's house (instead of paying the extra $8 to have them delivered to my house...$8 to drive around the block is ridiculous!) so we will see what happens when I go to pick them up.  I really hope that they didn't all think I was a bitch because, most of the time, I don't think I am one.  But I can understand how someone can get that impression.  I kind of wanted to make a friend since we are going to be living here you know, forever.  But I guess that comes with time.  Maybe I'll make myself go to the next party too.

Crazy, Just Crazy

I am eventually going to post pictures of our Disney trip (maybe even tonight, if I get motivated) but first I must tell you about my crazy day with my crazy child and my crazy dogs.  First of all, Wolfie isn't doing to hot.  He has some back problems and now he's developed some anxiety.  Yeah, that's right, the dog has anxiety.  Now, normally I would tell him to suck it up and get over it except that his form of anxiety manifests as a high pitched whinny cry that pierces your soul and is never ending.  When you are trying to sleep, you will do anything to make that stop.  Trust me.  That being said, while I sleep, Wolfie is now allowed to roam the house at his leisure instead of going in the crate with the girls.  So I woke up this afternoon, an hour earlier than I wanted to (this is of course after getting up to pee three times because of all the Pepsi I drank at work trying to stay awake through the night) irritated that the one day I can sleep in a little bit, I wake up at 1:30.  Whatever.  So I get up, clean up Wolfie's pee off the floor (I'm not going to even get into that), and take the dogs out.  Of course Wolfie won't go outside so I have to pick him up and put him on the grass where he proceeds to lay down.  Fine, obviously you don't have to pee since you did it already on my wood floors.  He lays there until the girls are done and then finally decides to walk around a little bit and do his business.  So we stay outside longer.  Finally, 15 minutes later, after we all were ready to go back inside, I was able to take a shower and get ready.  I left to pick up Alexa from day care and returned home to find poop on one of the area rugs.  I was gone for about 20 minutes total.  I'm not going to get into how I know it was Wolfie poop but let's just say I have my ways.  The next hour and a half was full of making dinner, eating dinner, getting dressed for work and playing with Alexa/trying to keep her occupied so she will quit screaming like a banshee.  After dinner, we went outside with the dogs.  Everything was fine until it was time to go inside.  Of course that was the point where Alexa decided that she wanted to ride in her car or throw a ball or do anything else that I said 'no' to.  I'd be herding the dogs to the door, I'd get Alexa almost to the door and then she'd run to something else that she wanted to play with.  I tell her no, she throws a fit, I drag her to the door again, repeat, repeat, repeat.  Meanwhile, Wolfie now decided (of course) that it was a nice time to take a walk by the woods.  You have got to be kidding me.  Let's all now think back to that wonderful bear we had about 6 months ago which was never actually caught, which I imagine is sitting just beyond my field of vision waiting to pounce on and eat whatever small creature happens to be walking by.  (Hey, I never said that I didn't have issues too)  So, of course now my priority is Wolfie (who, by the way, I need two hands to carry because of his back) and of course I never got Alexa close enough to the door to actually get her in the house.  I run to go pick up Wolfie and Alexa runs to the swing.  The whole time looking at me and shreiking with laughter.  I loose it, and start screaming that every living creature in this yard better get their butts into the house NOW!  (slight paraphrase) Eventually, everyone got inside, Alexa and I got into the car and I was able to drop her off to Nick who was still at work.  During the whole walk to Nick's room, Alexa and I worked on stopping, going and listening to Mommy.  And I also decided that no one is allowed to chase her around the house for fun saying 'I'm gonna get you!' anymore.  It's banned. 

On a lighter note, Alexa and I are going to a 31 party on Thursday with all of the women in the subdivision we live in.  I'm kind of excited to meet some of our neighbors but I'm mostly terrified of having to actually talk to people I don't know.  In any kind of social situation you can pretty much say good bye to nice, kind of funny, sarcastic and witty Kristin and say hello to silent, awkward Kristin.  And without Nick to hide behind, it will be ten times worse.  At least Alexa is coming with me.  She's a good excuse to have to leave if need be.  I can almost hear my mom asking me "Kristin, did you make any friends today?!"  No, mom, I didn't.  Well, at least on Thursday I can get points for trying.

Carry-on

I'm pretty sure this is one of the funniest videos ever.  You don't even need to watch the whole thing.  The first 15 seconds are good enough.  Ha-freaking-larious!  The best part is that she totally did it herself.

Disney World

We went to Orlando last weekend which means that we went to Disney last weekend too.  It's fantastic having a sister that works at Disney (even though she won't let me see her office).  Actually, she might be moving her office to a room that has a window (big times!) and she might even sit by that window.  To top all of that off, this window that we are speaking of can be viewed by guests who are on the Back Lot Tour ride at Hollywood Studios.  Like, the tram goes right by the window and you can see in there and Katie will have to wave at you if she makes eye contact.  I told her the day that she moves to that desk I will spend the whole day (after she gets me into the park for free...obviously) on that ride just so I can see her desk and wave to her.  All day long.  I might even have all our family members ride also in staggered groups so that every twenty minutes when a tram goes by her window, there will be someone waving obnoxiously at her.  Hmmmmm...good plan.  Anyway, back to Disney World.  Both Katie and I have friends who are going there in the past few weeks and it's very interesting to see how people take their Disney vacation.  In our family, it was all buisness.  My parents sacrificed other things so that we would be able to go to Disney in the first place.  We definately would not stay on property (unless we were camping at Fort Wilderness) and we always got the talk about how we are not going to be grumpy and how we are going to have a good time and everyone is going to be happy (like it or not).  Being in a park with my family is pretty equivalent to running a marathon.  The goal is to ride every ride at least once.  You will get to the rides quickly and efficiently.  You will not complain.  While we are waiting in line for one ride, we are mapping out our route to the next ride (and planning for the rest of the day).  Parades?  We don't do that.  3:00 is for riding any (or all) of the mountains.  As for food, you can split a meal with a sibling and drink water out of the water fountain.  It's exhausting and it's awesome.  You're jealous.  Being that this is how I grew up, I find it hilarious that people want to do things like people watching and taking naps.  There are no naps allowed.  Nap in the stroller (on the way to the next ride).  I also find it interesting that now that I'm not paying for my tickets anymore, I don't feel all the pressure to hit every single attraction.  We went to Animal Kingdom on Thursday because Katie got an extra day off of work.  Alexa got to pet the goats and pigs and we went through one of the trails so that she could see some birds.  Then on Friday we went to Epcot to see the fish in the Seas Pavillion and we walked around the World Showcase while Alexa was sleeping, saw our friends' band play and went on the boat ride in the Land.  All very relaxed and layed back.  It was kind of nice, for a change.  Now, don't get me wrong, I still think my family's way of doing Disney is the best way there is.  But I can now appreciate how someone might want to do it a little differently (and less psychotic).

Purple Weed and a Fuzzy Baby

I don't know if I've written about this, but Alexa doesn't say 'Mama'.  She used to.  I still think it was her first word and she used to say it all the time.  But for some reason, since she has really started trying to talk, the Mama thing has disappeared.  She says 'Dada' and 'Daddy' with no problem, but never 'Mama'.  So when I picked her up from day care the other day, the strangest thing happened.  They were playing outside and when I walked out on to the playground, Alexa saw me and started walking real fast toward me saying 'Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama'.  She wasn't loud or screaming, but almost saying it to herself.  Of course, I was super excited to hear her finally say it!  She came up to me and I gave her a big hug and a kiss and asked her to say it again.  Do you want to know what she did?  Shook her head no.  That little crazy.  She can totally say it and flat out refuses!  Hmmmm.

The continuation of a super long post describing our week (or at least two days of our week) in pictures:
  

Oh, so many things to be said with this picture.  First of all, yes, that is our Christmas tree, still drying out and waiting to be turned into firewood.  Alexa picked out this outfit to wear and she thought she looked super cute.  Especially the shoes.  She threw an absolute fit when I tried to put her sneakers on her.  I told her that we have to have shoes on to go outside, so she went into her shoe basket and pulled out the purple crocks.  OK, kid, whatever, as long as you have shoes on.  She was probably trying to coordinate with the shirt.  It has Mickey on it and the shoes are Minnie Mouse.  I don't know how that all works.  I don't do fashion.  Obviously. Oh, and her hands are over her mouth because she's coughing.  We are currently working on coughing into our elbow, but it's proving to be slightly more difficult to learn.

 Playing with rocks.

 Now that is a handsome looking dog!

 Is it bad parenting to take a picture first before taking the rock out of your kid's mouth?

 OK, two pictures.

 And....she spotted a bird.

 Yup, there it is, in the tree.

 She's showing me her teeth ;)

 We went to the baseball park to watch Travis, Chase and Brayden play.  It was pretty windy! (Nice hair, Lex! hehehe)

 Just checking things out.

 Look at Hot Stuff climbing the fence!  Hopefully, she won't use this new love of climbing to get out of her crib!  I'm not ready for a toddler bed yet!

 I shall call this picture: "Purple Weed and a Fuzzy Baby"

 "Hey"

 Nick and Alexa planted two of the trees that we got on Arbor day.  And of course they had to use her car to transport them around the yard.  Actually, the pots fit very nicely in the 'trunk' of her car.  Have I talked about the car yet?  She's obsessed.  Every time we go outside she has to ride in her car and then most of the time throws a fit when it's time to go inside again (actually, the going inside part is getting better).  She just walks up to it, sits down in it and looks at you, waiting to be pushed around.  She loves it.  It's the best $3 my mom has ever spent...yay for garage sales!

Big helper girl. 

 Planting the dogwood tree.  See that black thing in the background?  That's our compost bin.  Nick got it for Christmas from his dad.  He loves it.  I fear it and call it the bear magnet, which Nick does not understand at all.  I'm not sure what there is to not understand.  We had a bear in our back yard who went all through our garbage (and ate the food).  So the obvious thing to do after something like that happens is to put a bin in our back yard that is full of old, rotting food.  Because that won't attract bears at all, will it?  Exactly.

 She found an extra tree to be planed.

 Lexi learning the fine art of digging with a shovel.

Tree #2 ready to go in the ground. 

Hi Glynniss.  Glyn says that she's embarrassed to have this picture up because of her rough hair cut.  I told her that maybe if she would stay still while she's being shaved, her hair would look beautiful like Minnie's.  Minnie looked at her smugly, then Glynnie gave her a look and walked away.  (what?  Not everyone has conversations for their dogs?  Because that is totally what happened!)