October Fun

Yikes! I am way behind on this. I thought about skipping October and going straight to November, but there are some things I wanted to document, so here I am. In no particular order...

Oktoberfest - One thing I like about other countries is their culture. Being in America, I feel like we have a lack of culture. A while back I decided that perhaps we can do things as a family that is a reflection of our heritage. If nothing else, it's a fun family thing to look forward to. For our Oktoberfest I wanted to have a German breakfast. For us, that means brotchen. I looked up a few recipes and was all set to make it when I thought about the logistics. Quickly I decided that I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to make it. Fortunately, I found a German bakery. The kids and I headed over there in the morning. We picked up the brotchen along with kinder chocolate and real German gummies. We had a yummy breakfast with brotchen, salami, and cheese. For lunch we had Nuremberg brats from Trader Joe's. They are Ben's favorite from his time in Germany. After lunch I taught the kids how to polka. We finished our fest with the Chicken Dance. We were going to make pretzels, but ran out of time. Next year!

Halloween - This year we once again headed over to the Lantz's for Halloween. We headed over there in the afternoon for some play time. Then we went to their club house for an early dinner. Dinner was good, but service was slow! After that it was time to change. Adelyn was Rapunzel again (she liked the pink and purple costume the best), Odin was Thomas the Train and Genevieve was Cinderella. We had a lot of fun. The kids got a lot of candy. We actually still have most of it left! The kids were more interested in playing with it than eating it.

Genevieve - Genevieve had her 2 month well check. She did great during the ridiculously long appointment. The appointment was at 11:30 and we got out of there after 1. We are switching doctors for sure! She weighed in at 11 pounds 4 oz and was 22 inches long.

Vegetables - The kids and I headed over to Gilcrease Orchards to pick some veggies. We ended up there the week before Halloween. It was packed! Everyone was busy getting their pumpkins. We picked beets, zucchini, sweet potatoes and a pumpkin. With two little helpers, it was a kind of pathetic haul, but it was fun. For a treat we had some of their apple donuts. Those were pretty amazing. I will definitely go back,but next time I will bring Ben and the baby carrier for G.

Brian's Birthday Party

When we first moved to Vegas, we spent a lot of time at the Platinum Hotel. The location was good. Prices decent. We had a kitchen and washer/dryer. But most of all, the staff were amazing! Most of our contact was with the valet guys. They knew us by name and were always super friendly. Especially to the kids. In addition to the valet crew, there was a guy, Brian, that worked security. He would pop into the lobby when he saw us and blow bubbles for the kids. The kids LOVED this. When we moved into our condo, Adelyn was missing her friends at the Platinum. So, one day we made cookies and pictures and went for a visit.

Fast forward to last week. Adelyn started being sad that we weren't at the Platinum. Somehow she got it into her head that it was Brian's birthday and that we should make a cake and have a party. Wasn't sure about the party part, but I figured we could always bring a cake over. Adelyn was so excited!! I let her pick out a cake mix and frosting at the store (pink and pink because she insisted he loved pink). We made the cake and headed over there.

Unfortunately... Brian no longer works there. Adelyn was so disappointed. But I give her tons of credit - she handled it so well! After talking through our options, she decided we could give the cake to the valet guys. So we stepped outside and were immediately greeted by name! It was a slow time so we chatted for a few minutes with them. It felt like seeing friends again!

Getting Our Greek On

The end of September was the Greek Food Festival. We decided that sounded like fun. Parking was a little on the crazy side, but it didn't take us too long to find a spot. The kids had fallen asleep on the drive there, so I fed Genevieve in the car while we let them rest.


Our first stop was for food, of course. We had way too much... gyros, pita and hummus, Greek fries, saganaki (fried cheese), loukoumathes (deep fried dough with honey) and of course baklava.


Near the food tent they had a stage with live music and dancers. Adelyn thought it was too loud, but we enjoyed watching and listening.


After our tummies were stuffed, we walked over to the rides. Adelyn and Odin picked the kid Ferris wheel to go on, followed by a bounce house. They both had so much fun.


By then we were ready to go. Mostly because it was getting chilly and for some reason we didn't think to pack jackets. Silly us.


On our way out we bought Adelyn a scarf with coins sewed all over it (think like a belly dancer). It seemed like all the little girls were wearing them. Odin wanted one too, but the nice lady at the booth found a light-up toy for him instead. Adelyn has been having fun with the scarf. It makes a bunch of noise when she dances. :)

Thirteen Years

On September 15, Ben and I celebrated 13 years of marriage. Well, we celebrated the weekend before, but you know what I mean.

Rick and Mickey came into town for the weekend, so we took full advantage! On Friday we went shopping. I did a horrible job of packing non-maternity clothes when we moved back to Vegas. I literally did not have anything to wear for a nice dinner. Oops. We found an awesome store at Fashion Mall. Can't remember what it's called, but I could have bought just about one of everything in the store and would have worn them all. Only down side of this store is that it is expensive. Of course. So, I settled on one dress for Saturday night.

Friday night we had friends in town, so we met up with them for a drink and a walk around the Linq and the Strip. It was fun to see them and spend time with them.

Saturday afternoon, Ben and I headed over to Mandalay Bay for their day club. Krewella was playing at the pool. We had a lot of fun. The girls rocked it!

That evening Ben and I went out to dinner. It was my pick. I almost went for Steak n' Shake, but decided that since the kids like that place, I should pick a place that they don't like. So we went to Sushi Roku. We had some excellent hunks of fish. So good. They gave us free dessert. So nice!

After that we walked around the mall a bit, mainly to get out of it. But we stopped by a cool gallery. We found a print we both really liked. Turns out it could be ours for the low price of $6800. Hmm... Maybe not. Then we went on a hunt for dessert (don't judge! it was our anniversary!). The first place we tried to go to didn't exist. So we walked to the Mirage. That place didn't exist either. We ended up at BLT Burger. They have awesome shakes. So we got that. So full.

On Monday, our actual anniversary, was busy with laundry and running around getting things for Ben's trip to Peru the following day. We ended up at a Greek restaurant for dinner. The kids didn't really like it, but Ben and I were in gyro heaven! Their pitas so so good!

And thus concluded our 13 year celebration.

Firsts

Even though Genevieve is our third child, we still had some firsts with her.

She was the first to have formula. Before leaving the hospital, they checked her bilirubin. It was elevated. Ben and I weren't concerned since both other kids had this and everything was fine. But for some reason they freak out about that here. So, our choices were one more night in the hospital while they put her under lights in the nursery, or supplement her feedings with 20 ml of formula for 24 hours. We would rather be home. So we agreed to formula. Her bilirubin dropped drastically by the next day when we brought her in again. No more formula!

She went to her first buffet at about 36 hours. We had both sets of grandparents in town. I felt great. So, Sunday morning we all went out to brunch. The hostess was a little appalled that we took our newborn out. To a casino. Where there are germs. Someone else thought that we had the baby and then flew to Vegas. But one thing is for sure, the Bacchanal Buffet is AMAZING! The food was terrific. And you should see the dessert counter. I would pay just for that! Genevieve did great.

She was the the first to co-sleep with us. Honestly, this was due mainly to the fact that I was so completely tired. I would just snuggle up with her to feed her and fall asleep. When she fussed, we would roll over and she would eat some more and I would go back to sleep. As I got caught up on sleep, or my body got used to the lack of sleep, I started to get paranoid that she would suffocate - she really liked to snuggle into me. So, gradually we transitioned her to her crib. I miss my snuggle bug, but I think it's the best for both of us to get a good night's sleep.

She is the first to like tummy time. Just a few times I've put her on her tummy. Absolutely no complaints! Adelyn and Odin would basically scream bloody murder until we moved them back to their backs, or they figured out how to roll. Genevieve does not mind one bit. In fact, I think she likes it. I'm trying to take advantage of that.

Genevieve Marie

At 9:30 pm on August 22, 2014, we welcomed Genevieve Marie into our lives.

She was 8 pounds, 1 oz and 20.5 inches long. Ten fingers. Ten toes. And absolutely perfect!

On August 21 I had my weekly doctor's appointment. I was dilated to a 2. I figured that our little girl would be making her appearance soon. My mom had flown in on the 16, so we had child care for Adelyn and Odin all set, so really, the baby could come whenever she wanted to. That night I had contractions on a fairly regular intervals (every 6 minutes). But they weren't painful yet. Before heading to bed, Ben and I made sure our bag for the hospital was all set and ready to go.

We made it until morning with nothing much happening. We had breakfast and tried to have a normal day. I played with A and O. I worked a bit. Contractions were coming more frequently. And they were starting to hurt. Ben started to get concerned that we were going to have the baby on the freeway on the way to the hospital, so after we fed the kids (well, everyone but me) we packed up in the cars and went to the hospital.

They checked me out and I was at 4 cm with a bulging bag, so they weren't going to let me go anywhere without having the baby first. Once I got into a room, we said goodbye to Adelyn, Odin and Grandma.

The nurse,Janice, was having technical difficulties with our room. She couldn't get the computer up. That meant she couldn't monitor remotely my contractions or the baby. That meant she had to stay in our room. That was fine, just annoying for her because she had to keep calling other nurses in to do things. We all thought baby was going to come quickly, so Janice was working quickly to get everything set. I made it to 6 cm. and had just got an epidural when the decision was made to move me to a room with working technology. I think Janice thought the baby was going to be delivered in the hallway. She kept informing everyone helping to move me (had to move the bed because of the epidural) that I was at 6 and this was my third. We made it without incident to the new room.

Then things slowed down. I think my body was too comfortable. Contractions slowed way down and my progress slowed down too. At this point they wanted to give me to pitocin. We asked if we could wait an hour. The doctor agreed. So, we tried to make me uncomfortable. Instead of relaxing in a reclined position, I sat up more to get gravity to help more. I moved from side to side every 10-15 minutes to get the baby to move on her own. It worked! I was back to making process.

At some point during all this, my doctor made the call that he wasn't going to deliver for me. He technically had the day off and had already been at the hospital most of the day with others. Janice assured me that the doctor on call was excellent and one of her favorites.

Nurse change! We said goodbye to Janice and said hello to Keisha. She was very nice too. My pain level was going up. We talked about getting more drugs. We had some more administered. The next time I was checked, she asked me to do a practice push to make sure I could push. She said the baby's head was "right there." So I gave a little push. Keisha started to yell at me to stop. She told me to not even sneeze until the doctor came in.

Our room got a little busy with the baby nurse getting everything ready and Dr. Juarez getting ready. He asked if I was ready to push. Sure! Let's get this over with. :) With the next contraction he had me push. He told me to stop basically mid-push... she was born! Seriously, less than one push and she was out. No tears even.

Adelyn's 4 Year Well Check

Adelyn has been asking for weeks when she gets to go to the doctor. The combination of me going weekly and her fascination with Doc MCStuffins has fueled this. I'll take it! I finally got all medical records transferred and new insurance in place. On Friday she finally got her appointment.

She weighed in at 40.0 pounds (78 percentile) and is 42 inches tall (83 percentile).

She was being a little shy, so she wasn't talking much when the doctor came in. So, naturally the doctor asked if she had any problems speaking, forming sentences, etc. I chuckled. She's been a talker for so long now, I barely remember her not talking in complete sentences! Meanwhile, Odin wasn't shy, so he was busy telling the doctor lots of things. She was impressed with his speaking too. I wonder where my kids get it...

Adelyn did end up needing shots. Uh oh. In Minnesota she didn't need any until 5. But here, they do the last round before school at 4. So, she got 2 shots. We talked about it while we waited for the nurse to return. She was so brave! After the nurse left the room again, she let out a little sob and said, "Mommy, that did hurt a little bit!" But that was it. I think knowing that a sucker was coming helped.