Tessa and GG

We went and visited GG a few weeks ago. Actually, like a month ago. I just found the pictures though, so I figured I'd post them. My grandma Wilson is awesome. So awesome. She grew up on a farm, farmed her whole life, and now is suppressed with city living. By city I mean sprawling metropolis of 600 people.

She is so frugal and I can't help but giggle at her sometimes. We went out to lunch, and she washed the styrofoam takeout box so she could reuse it. Her entire deep freeze is filled with yogurt containers with various items. We always joke that she saves 4 kernels of corn in her yogurt container and freezes it so she doesn't waste anything. Everytime we visit, she's defrosted some cookies for us. Yep, defrosted cookies. At one point she had freshly baked them, but it never seems to be the day we're visiting.

We love spending time with her, and she loves the company. So, we had a day off and decided to make the hour long trip to GG's house. Tessa had a blast, as usual. GG pulled out the baby butler, which looks like a death trap but is really just an old skool high chair type thing.

Tessa was her usual happy and silly self, which made GG very happy. We got a few good pictures and had fun playing cards with GG. We knew it was a big deal we were coming because she cancelled her usual plans of cards and lunch with "the girls" to have lunch and cards with us.

This epically sucks

Working in an ER can be some of the most exciting moments in my day. From being a quiet, normal, easy, day with just a few patients, to instantly changing when you hear "Unit 3, 10-76 to Trinity, one patient on board, 10-33, CPR in progress, advise Code Blue." Your heart sinks, your gut tightens, and you know you are changing the course of one family's life. But at the same time, your pulse is racing, your hands get a little sweaty, and you know it's go time. Chasing the ambulance trying to figure out who your patient is, realizing they don't know who the patient is, having real life John or Jane Doe's, and hoping someone shows up to identify the patient before anything worse happens is part of my daily routine.

Lately, though, I'm over it. I don't want to have to see family members come into the ER with some hope and leave realizing they've lost a family member. It is worse when you see a fiance, a mother, or a child. Especially when that child is young. More often than I care to think about, I see a child that has been yanked out of school, being told something bad happened to their mom or dad, and show up to find out they now only have one parent. And yet, death is a fact of life, and seeing it regularly makes me jaded. I don't like it.

What a goofy girl

Tessa is officially 11 months old. Yikes. That's one month away from being a year old. Double yikes. She has more personality than she knows what to do with. She loves to fake cough, fake laugh, destroy everything in sight, and make silly faces. The newest of which is the one below:

She is going to be a bee for Halloween (maybe, this was a handmedown, I haven't decided if I need to buy her a costume yet, but I still might need to). So, we tried it on and practiced. She hates the hood, which is pretty much what makes it a bee as opposed to just a striped outfit. And it's a little tight. We'll see.

 Since she's officially 11 months, we also took her 11 month pictures! She finally realized that her rocking chair rocks and if she throws her body around, she can make it move. Pictures were more difficult than normal. And she loves her koala bear chew toy snuggle buddy/pillow.

SQUEEE

We bought a house! Yes, that's right. We have a signed, accepted offer on a house and will be closing November 21st! I'm a little bummed we won't be in our new house by Halloween. That was my goal since our new house is in the most adorable neighborhood in town. I was hoping we could drag Tessa around in a wagon in her bumble bee costume and trick or treat to all our new neighbors. But, we'll have to wait for next year. The sellers needed time to buy a house so we aren't closing until just before Thanksgiving. At least it won't be the dead of winter.

When we went to the bank today, Joel told the mortgage guy I already spent all our money on stuff for the house. I was embarrassed, but he was telling the truth. Ever since we decided to buy, I've been buying "house stuff" that I can't live without. Nevermind that I don't know if it will fit in the new house, I needed it because it was for the new house. That's just how my world works. So, I've been picking stuff up here and there, and loading up a few bags when we were at IKEA last month. The ability to decorate my own home is something I haven't had a chance to do yet, so I really want to take advantage and make my home 'us'.

work work work, all day long

I feel like that's all we do anymore. Joel gets home at 4:10am, I leave for work at 4:20am. Joel takes Tessa to daycare when she wakes up, I pick her up when I get off work. I come home, he goes into work at 4pm (he's been working insane amounts of overtime). He comes home for supper, I get Tessa supper and ready for bed, we go to bed. That's our days lately.

Finally today, we both have days off! So, we're heading to Ames for a fun day of Target. Yes, I make a day out of a Target trip. We have a few errands to run so uncle Marcus is going to watch Tessa. I think the best birth control in the world is handing off a wild 10 month old to a single college guy.

In other news, we're in the market for a house. We decided we like WC and want to hang out here a while. It's a pretty nice place, we've got some good friends and we both like our jobs. That is a stressful process! So many houses, so many choices, so many different layouts and designs. We want something that's at least semi-updated. We don't have the time or energy for a complete renovation of anything so it's a bonus if someone else already did it.

10 signs you had a great weekend

This past weekend Joel and I took a trip up to Minneapolis without Tessa for his birthday. I bought tickets to preseason Vikings/Cowboys game, did a little shopping, and had some R&R. So, in honor of the weekend, 10 things that guaranteed a fabulous trip, in no particular order.

1.  Hitting up the casino at 8:30am. Only a few crazy old lurker ladies and far less smoke.
2. Joel trying to get into the football game, gets patted down, random security dude, "Is that a cellphone on your hip, sir?" Joel: "Uh... yeah it sure is." Joel to me: "I told him what he wanted to hear."
3. Joel getting loud during the football game, yells at the top of his lungs after Romo makes a nice pass, "That a way to get it in the hole". Me: "That's what she said." Random old lady behind us: giggles, tells her friend, more giggles.
4. Drunk Vikings fan talking smack to me until I shut him up by knowing more about football than him.
5. Same drunk Vikings fan telling me I was cool because I don't like Green Bay and do like the Hawkeyes.
6. 2 Trips to IKEA.
7. Getting lost in downtown Minneapolis, Joel telling me to trust him and said he knew where he was going, Joel getting lost, Andrea getting the inevitable motion sickness.
8. IKEA breakfast causing the trots, but since it was 99 cents, we'll call it a wash. It was tasty.
9. Almost crashing a wedding reception at our hotel. 
10. 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep, laying in bed drinking coffee, a couple cocktails with your husband, the feeling of being carefree for 36 hours, all priceless. 

We were very happy to see Tessa this afternoon though. She was equally as happy. 

sick baby

For the past week, we've had a sick baby on our hands. We can't figure out why, since her blood work was perfectly fine, but she's been spiking high fevers unless we medicate her every 3 hours around the clock. Her sleeping has suffered, she won't eat, and she's miserable. Her fever will get up to 103.9, Tylenol will bring it down to 102. Then Monday she had to leave daycare because her fever was at 100.2. To me, that was nothing, especially considering what it has been, but it was too high for them. She doesn't seem to have any other complaints other than the fever (no teeth, not vomiting, ears are ok) so we really just don't know. Yesterday though, she seemed like she had bounced back and was her normal self. Hopefully it lasts!

Oh, and here's some 9 month pictures I promised.

Back and Forth, forth and back

When we first moved to WC, it was decided that we'd rent for a couple months, buy a house, and move at the end of the 4 year contract Joel signed. 1.9 years later, we're in the same townhouse we moved into on October 31, 2009. The walls are closing in, there's not enough space for our stuff. And frankly, I'm not getting rid of my stuff to accommodate this space.

So, the time has come. We either move to somewhere else in WC and probably buy a house (my choice) or try to find Joel a job in the Des Moines area and move there (Joel's choice, unless he actually has to apply or try for a job. He fully expects some department to call him and just want him to come work for them.) I like being here, I like the people, we've made some friends, I have a good job that I like pays the bills and Joel is doing well at the PD. Plus, we're technically still under contract for another 2 years. If we did leave, he'd have to pay back that contract or try to convince the next place to pay it for us. I'm happy here.

Sure, it'd be nice to get closer to where the rest of our family is, but truth be told, I like it here. I like having a little separation but still being close enough to drive down for a few hours. We're 74 miles from my house and 71 miles from Joel's. We're already there almost every other week, I can only imagine how often we'd be at someone else's house if we lived there. I like that I can have a messy house and get a couple days' notice before someone comes to visit and I need to clean. Not that I like having a messy house, but you know what I mean.

I just don't know. What should we do? Joel says he'd be happy here longer than the next 2 years that his contract requires, but in the next breath he says he wouldn't mind moving closer to home. Ugh. His indecisiveness drives me batty. I jump in head first to things. He slowly dips his toes in the water, waits a month, then sticks an ankle in, thinks about it for another 6 weeks, gets up to his knee, and so on. I dive in and hope for the best.

Who knows what we'll decide. Any advice?

9 months

Yesterday Tessa had her 9 month appointment yesterday. She is still long and skinny, as we suspected .She weighed 17 lbs 4 oz and is 27 1/2 inches long. That is around the 50th percentile for length and just under the 25th for weight. She's been hovering around that 25th percentile since she was born.

They did a lab draw which had me nervous for Tessa's reaction. But, she did so well! She was perfectly content playing with the paper on the exam table. She only started to cry when she didn't want the tech to hold her hand anymore. Then she ate the bandaid.

We did discover her hemoglobin was a little low at 10.2 so we'll have to do iron supplements every day until she's a year old. They'll recheck at her 1 year appointment. The doctor said it's not abnormally low and that it's pretty common in breastfed babies. He thought this would help boost her immune system a little too so she can fight off infections in the coming winter months. 9 Month pictures to follow.

daycare

After 9 months and a few odd days, Tessa went to daycare for the first time. She was giving me looks of confusion as I woke her up, dressed her, and packed her up with a couple bags. She didn't want to eat breakfast at my pace. She wanted to dink around and play with her cheerios. She didn't want to get dressed, she wanted to crawl around naked. She definitely didn't want to go in the carseat. Have I mentioned that the carseat is apparently the worst form of torture Tessa could think of?

I had every intention of leaving home ten minutes earlier than usual. It was only a couple miles to daycare, but I wanted to be prepared and help Tessa settle in a little. Well, 15 minutes later, we were out the door. I packed her a lunch, but forgot one for me. I packed her water bottle, but not my own. She had plenty of diapers, and I thought I might need one after this.

Off we were. Joel met us there since he was working overtime so he was still on duty. We got our access code, went in, and handed her off to the gal working in her room. But, we had 2 bags of stuff. Food for the day plus some extras for future days, milk, formula, bottles, everything. We had moved in.

I didn't realize until later that they said they provide almost all of that free of charge unless we need to bring her something because of an allergy. Oops. I'm a planner, I wanted to be prepared. And prepared I was. Just not for how easily Tessa would lurch out of my arms to go play. How dare she. Didn't she understand that this was supposed to be traumatic? I certainly did.

10 hours later, I was back to pick her up. Joel was going back into work early that day so he needed to go home and get some sleep and I was off work, ready to see her and see how her day was. Of course, she did very well. She wouldn't nap though because she's so curious about everything she doesn't want to miss a beat. I mean, how dare we suggest she get some rest so she's not a crank-o-pottamus. Alas, she won that round. She crashed about 5 minutes before I got there to pick her up and slept through the car ride home and an extra 45 minutes at home. I knew she'd give in eventually. Tessa's a strong willed one. I wonder who she gets that from!

So anyways, the moral of the story is, I had built this day up as a huge deal and very scary, and it was absolutely no big deal. She had fun. Joel got some much needed rest. And,  I finally got bumped up to full time hours again! More on that to come.

The next day, we left on time and I was actually to work 5 minutes early. We're professionals at this now.