A wild 22/23 month update!

For the past week I have been crafting a blog post in my head and then by the end of the night when I have time to do it, I just want to veg out and do nothing. I have good intentions but not always good follow-through!

Since I've written last, we celebrated Anna's 2nd Halloween (and this year it was actually ON Halloween and we got to go trick-or-treating!)

But first, let's back it up.
The weekend before Halloween we were out and about doing errands, everything was normal.  Sunday night Anna woke up around 9:30 coughing and gasping for air. It was the worst sound I had ever heard, so SAD. We immediately rushed in and tried to comfort her, went into the bathroom with the shower on for steam but it didn't seem to be doing anything.  After some googling, it sounded like Anna had croup - and one of the suggestions was to take her outside into the cool night air.  We all bundled up and out we went to sit for about 20 mins.  That helped a bit and I tried to settle into the guest room with her to possibly fall asleep.  Even though she felt like crap, she still loved laying in bed with me and immediately thought it was playtime. YAY. Took her forever to calm down and we finally moved into our bed since she's more used to that and sure enough, she fell asleep. A rough night for sure.  I knew something was wrong as she wheezed and had so much trouble breathing all night.  I called the doctor and we got in first thing Monday. Diagnosis confirmed and a 5-day dose of steroids were given. They seemed to help her immediately and within a day I saw a drastic improvement.  She was even able to sleep through the night Monday and was in much better spirits Tuesday - I decided to stay home and give her a bit more TLC.  All in all, we survived and thankfully Halloween was not a bust.  By Thursday she was as good as new!

first time in the car on the cart at the grocery store.  A big hit

my sick pumpkin snuggling me

Momma TLC

Costume for daycare (reused from Sonja's princess party!)

CHEEESE!  The official cow costume

Posing with Daddy

pinching my cheeks. (painful but cute)

Family pic

Out looking for candy!

We got a new treat from Gram which is a huge hit.
Daddy hates cleaning up letters constantly

THEN, Doug and Anna are playing one night after dinner and I'm doing dishes and suddenly Anna runs in and is hysterically crying, holding her arm saying "my boo boo, my boo boo" and won't move it. Neither of us know what to do and Doug didn't even know she had hurt it until she just ran away crying.  She wouldn't let us touch it and was being really weird. We gave her Advil and she went to bed okay, but as soon as it wore off she was up screaming. YAY. That was a LONG night.  I knew something was up and made a doctor's appointment with a pediatric orthopedist and sure enough, she had "nursemaid's elbow".  That is basically a dislocated elbow! FUN!  So he did a bit of examining and then I had to hold her while he popped her elbow back in place. It made a big pop sound, she wailed for about 30 seconds and then was fine.  It was awful, but I was so glad it wasn't broken!  My mom thankfully had off that day, so Anna went back to her house so I could go back to work and take care of things before leaving for vacation.  Took a good nap and was acting just like herself in no time.

It's always something, huh??

Wearing our bunnies proudly

Wearing her ACE Hat, representin for Baba while Mommy paints!

She's been wanting to sit at the table with us while we eat our dinner (lately we've been lucky to have Doug working from home so we have the option to eat dinner before we put Anna down to bed... a LUXURY!)  She sits and has a snack while we eat. I figured it might be time to try out a booster seat and sure enough, it's a hit.  She'll still sit in her highchair but she really likes the new seat, and of course all of its buckles.

This past week Doug and I took off for our "stay-cation", where we planned to work on the house and do some fun things while we sent Anna to daycare.  It's impossible to get work done in a 2-hour span, during which you have to be quiet as to not interrupt the only 2-hour span you have during the entire day.  So we figured it was for the best!  To start our stay-cation off right, we went to an early dinner at a nearby restaurant on Sunday and Anna ate grilled cheese like a big girl.  She also drew on the "tablecloth" (brown paper meant for drawing, etc) and at the very end ran around exploring a bit.  It's a very family-friendly casual place and since we ate early it was fairly empty and no big deal.

Hmmm, I like this thing.

We had a chilly morning with SNOW! I couldn't believe it.  Daddy wanted to try for pigtails with this sweet outfit and we had success!

TOO CUTE

After doing a few things on Monday and Tuesday, I got to work in Anna's room on Wednesday. I knew it was going to be a huge undertaking and I was right.  My hands are not what they used to be (not sure when they were good, but I'm sure at some point they were)... And a full day of painting really did me in.

Just getting started.

Playtime at night was nice, we were all so relaxed and it was so good to just hang out, make dinner and not worry about work or chores around the house.  We should do this more often!!!

hangin with Daddy!

Thursday I had to give the room a full second coat, the yellow we picked just couldn't get it done in one coat.  Doug had to do the second coat with the roller - I had to wave the white flag!

We absolutely love her room and can't wait to get more decorating done in there.  We've hung a few things and have more to put up, but it's a great start.  I hope she really likes it too (so far there has been no reaction haha)

We did get out to a few restaurants and had a really nice meal for Jersey Shore restaurant week at Fromagerie. We both loved it and it was so nice to try a fancy/expensive place without the huge cost (they were offering lunch specials for 15.13 and dinner options for 30.13)  A great deal!
 

Anna's new thing - plugging her ears when Daddy was talking! haha

A few more shots of our last weekend all together:

Out for a walk, looking fabulous

Had to get out halfway through and walk and collect leaves.
Ended up being very fun and thankfully didn't result in a fight or tantrum!

We had our Sea Bright friends over for brunch on Sunday and when Anna woke up from her nap, there were 8 relative strangers making noise in her house.  Took her a while to get adjusted.

This was how she woke up.

Then later the guys went out to throw a football around (How American of them) and Anna got right in the middle, squealing with delight when they would throw the ball.  They even humored her a bit and let her catch and throw it a few times.

Then, she suckered Jess and Billy into a game of Ring Around the Rosie - all while watching THEM fall down, and standing and laughing

Trying on Todd's shoes

A little snuggling with Daddy before bed

So that's about that. We are trying to get back into "normal" today. Feels weird for Doug to be gone and I know that I am missing him (and not the only one!)  Anna did say about 10x "Daddy sleeping?" this morning, wondering where he was (Sorry Doug, made me sad too!)  Need to eat better, etc etc etc. That's always how you should feel after a vacation, right? I guess we did it right!

Can't wait for Thanksgiving... I wonder how our little turkey will handle it this year!